A Newport Beach man was handed a 35-year prison sentence for masterminding a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, a prosecutor said Monday.
Brandon Walton Stewart, 33, was also ordered Friday to pay about $12 million in restitution, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Marc Labreche.
Stewart is also expected to be ordered to pay a fine of nearly $27 million, the prosecutor said.
Stewart pleaded guilty in August to one count of burglary, 22 counts of using untrue statements in the purchase or sale of a security, 125 counts of money laundering, 38 check-kiting counts, and multiple counts of tax fraud. As part of the plea deal, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King promised not to sentence the defendant to more than 50 years behind bars.
Stewart was arrested in Dallas and extradited back to Orange County in May 2015 to face charges that he ran a $13.5 million Ponzi scheme from April 2009 through January 2013.
Stewart promised four victims he would invest their money in stocks such as Facebook, but he instead spent it on trips to Las Vegas on a private jet to gamble, according to prosecutors, who said one of his victims was a 92-year-old relative.
He also kited $3 million in bogus checks from closed accounts or ones with insufficient funds, prosecutors said.