LOS ANGELES (CN) - A 65-year-old British man faces up to 170 years in federal prison for bilking investors of $7.3 million and spending the money on a high-priced home and a Land Rover. A jury took just 20 minutes to find him guilty after a 2-week trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Robert Tringham, originally from Nottinghamshire, England, set up the Rancho Cucamonga-based First National Bancorp to solicit money purportedly to be leveraged to trade in discounted Grade A bonds. He promised investors high rates of return.
But Tringham never made the bond trades; he simply took millions of dollars to buy and house in Diamond Bar and a Land Rover, prosecutors said.
Tringham failed to disclose that he had been convicted of deception, forgery and theft in the United Kingdom.
He was convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators. He will have to give up his house.
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