Orange County man faces sentencing for 693 felony counts of defrauding elderly investors

A San Juan Capistrano man is being sentenced this week in Orange County Superior Court after his conviction on 693 felony counts of defrauding more than 125 senior citizens out of their life savings.

Sentencing began Friday for Jeffrey Gordon Butler, who was convicted in June of stealing more than $11 million from elderly investors through the illegal sale of unqualified promissory notes or stocks and filing false tax returns on his ill-gained profits, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.

Because so many victims want to make statements to the court, sentencing is expected to stretch into the rest of the week and possibly the next.

"This is a very large case that took awhile to investigate," Emami said. 

Butler, 51, was found guilty by a jury on charges of making untrue statements in selling securities and unqualified securities, theft from elderly persons, using a scheme to defraud in the sale of a security, and filing false tax returns from 2001 to 2004 and failing to report income of more than $5.5 million, resulting in an unpaid tax liability of more than $530,000. He faces a maximum sentence of more than 300 years in state prison.

Butler sold more than 300 promissory notes or stocks without obtaining a license for the notes from the California Department of Corporations, as required by law, according to court records. He met his first victims while operating a company called Senior Information Services, which offered to help senior citizens create living wills, trusts and other estate planning structures for a fee.

While operating a series of businesses that changed names from 1995 to 2004, the records said, Butler failed to provide his investors with documents and information about his companies, including how they made money and the risks involved in investing in the companies, as required by law.

In 2000, Butler moved his clients' funds to his newest venture, Global Network Providers (Grenada) Inc., without the knowledge of the investors. The clients' money went to the development of a "telecommunications" company supposedly located on the eastern Caribbean island of Grenada. The company had few assets and no income, according to court records.

Emami said Butler's wife, Peggy Warmath Butler, 49, was convicted on the same day as her husband on four felony counts of filing false tax returns. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison.

Jeffrey Butler's nearly eight-month jury trial began in November 2008 and included testimony from 92 victims, including 82 people aged 65 and older. Video testimony was presented by 49 other victims who recorded their statements before the trial began in case they were later unavailable due to illness or death, Emami said.

At least six victims died during the course of the trial, and 52 victims died prior to the case being brought before a jury. Prosecutors expect surviving victims, victims' spouses and their children to make statements during sentencing proceedings, Emami said.

"We do see Ponzi schemes often, but this one was on a larger scale, with a lot of victims," she said.

-- Gerrick D. Kennedy

Comments

[Clare]

I hope they don't have children????!!!

[Mike]

This is just sickening. We really need to get these type of felons on death row. Sure, they didn't murder anyone, but taking Senior Citizen's retirement money? You might as well have.

Scum like this guy don't deserve to live. Forgive, the Christian mantra. NOT FOR THIS!

[Us citizen]

and i bet he is an illegal immigrant too. send his ass back to europe where he came from. damn european always coming here and committing their crimes and having big families

[kirk]

We haven't seen nothing yet.. there could be more and bigger thugs out there needing to be caught.

[Ashley]

They do have children, and they are good people. This trial has been blown way out of proportion, this is not the entire story.

[Kris]

His business was making phone lines in Grenada for medical uses. $10,000 of equipment was found down there when he acquired $11,000,000 in investment from old people. This guy would call my grandpa every week to make sure he's doing alright, and when my grandpa needed the money, Jeff was no where to be found, didnt answer one call before he died. Its not ironic that most of the elderly victimized didnt live long enough to see their justice. The sad part was watching the home made videos in court of these people, stating how they lost everything. He robbed the quality of life