SAN DIEGO (CN) - The former owner of Amerifund Capital Finance, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $20.7 million in restitution for a worldwide stock loan fraud.
Jeffrey R. Spanier, 49, of Delray Beach, Fla., was convicted by a federal jury on Dec. 20, 2013 of multiple counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud. His ring bilked "victims all over the world" in their $100 million stock loan fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement announcing Spanier's sentencing.
His co-conspirator Douglas McClain Jr. was convicted in a jury trial on May 31, 2013. Their co-conspirator James Miceli committed suicide before trial.
The conspirators "fraudulently induced corporate executives to pledge millions of dollars worth of stock the executives held in publicly traded companies as collateral for loans by falsely representing that the borrowers' stock would not be sold unless there was a default on the loan," prosecutors said in the statement.
Actually, they had no money to lend, and the purported lender, Argyll Equities, "survived for years by immediately selling borrowers stock on the day after the stock was pledged as collateral. The proceeds from the sale of the stock were used to fund the loans creating the appearance that Argyll had plenty of cash to lend," according to the U.S. attorney.
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