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.
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.
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
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