Kris Alingod - AHN Contributor
Manhattan, NY (AHN) - Dubbed a "Hillraiser" for having raised more than $1 million for the presidential campaign of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Democratic fundraiser and businessman Norman Hsu has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for an $80 million Ponzi scheme that included making illegal campaign contributions.
The 58-year-old was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan federal court. He received 20 years for wire and mail fraud charges and four years and three months, to be served consecutively to the 240-month term, for campaign finance fraud charges.
Hsu pleaded guilty on May 7 to five counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud. From 2000 to 2007, he had convinced his victims, as managing director of Components Ltd. and Next Components Ltd., to invest at least $60 million by guaranteeing short-term returns, according to prosecutors. He was able to defraud investors of $20 million.
On May 19, he was convicted of four counts of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. He was found to have made campaign contributions using other people's names.
Hsu had asked investors in his Ponzi scheme in 2005, 2006 and 2007 to make contributions worth $25,000 for each year to specific federal candidates, and then reimbursed these people for the donations. He had threatened to put their investments at risk if they refused to make the donations.
"He broke federal campaign finance laws to pump up his public profile and bolster his victims' belief in his phony investment program," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
Before his arrest two years ago, Hsu was a fugitive in California since 1992, when he went on the run from police after pleading no contest to charges of grand theft. He posted a $2 million bail in August 2007, did not make a scheduled court appearance the next month, and was arrested at a hospital in Colorado later the same year after attempting suicide.
In January 2008, he received a three-year sentence from his 16-year old fraud conviction in California.
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