Just in on the Quatloos forum, per an email from the AUSA and posted by Lost Income:
Defendants Joel Gillis and Edward Wishner were sentenced today (November 16, 2015) to the following:
Gillis: 120 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release
Wishner: 108 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised releaseA restitution hearing has been scheduled for February 1, 2016 at 10:00 AM before Judge Otero, courtroom #1, on the 2nd floor of the U.S. Courthouse, 312 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. the notification system will be updated after the restitution hearing.
The court ordered the defendants to surrender to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on December 28, 2015.
So, Joel got 10 years and Ed 9 years. Given their ages, these sentences may result in life in prison.
That’s a far cry from the 2 years in prison and 3 years supervised release that they both wanted. If you’re looking for where I mentioned that before, I didn’t. Joel and Ed posted their take on the whole situation in two separate documents and I was slowly chipping away at responses but missed the boat on getting it done before sentencing. Crap. I’ll still post a response, since there’s some good insight into how deluded these scumbags are.
But we’ve got a nice victory here and that restitution hearing will certainly appeal to my sadistic side.
I thought that the sentencing had been postponed to March 30?
Sent from my iPhone
>
Ladt entry on the docket regarding rescheduling moved it to Nov 16th. Sentencing memorandums were due by the 2nd and there was a flurry of activity on the docket to that end.
I hope that a life sentence for both these bastards. The court should have remanded them right away, who knows Joel and Ed could off themselves before December 28.
Two Woodland Hills men were each sentenced Monday to multiple years behind bars for running what prosecutors characterized as one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever seen in the Southland.
Joel Barry Gillis, 75, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and 77-year-old Edward Wishner will serve nine years for masterminding the 13-year- long scheme.
Hundreds of millions of dollars was lost by more than 1,300 investors who were falsely told their money would purchase profitable automated teller machines that would generate annual profits of at least 20 percent, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero cited the “staggering losses suffered by the victims,” many of whom spoke to the court of the emotional and financial effects of the theft.
“Because of their excessive greed, they elected to hurt many people,” one victim told Otero.
Another broke down when describing how he and his family has lost their life savings and were forced to sell their home of 20 years.
“We were stripped of our sense of community and dignity,” he told the court.
Gillis’ attorney, Jim Spertus, said prior to the hearing that the government’s contention that the defendants are unfeeling con men who took advantage of gullible members of the community is false.
“They are two very good-hearted old men who do not deserve (what would amount to) life sentences for a variety of reasons,” Spertus said.
“Almost all investor money went to investors, less relatively modest salaries, and until the business collapsed, the investors received guaranteed 20 percent returns for many years,” the defense attorney maintained.
“Some investors made many millions of dollars from their investments, and many others lost money, but Joel and Ed are not evil and did not perpetrate a scheme to enrich themselves,” he said.
Taking into account the “major magnitude” of the scheme, Otero said he issued sentences less that those called for under federal sentencing guidelines after considering the defendants’ ages, their early guilty pleas in the case and their attempts to help a court-appointed receiver identify remaining assets that could be used to repay victims.
A restitution hearing was scheduled for Feb. 1, and the judge ordered the defendants to begin serving their sentences on Dec. 28.
Why are they FREE until December 28th? They should have been behind bars when they pled guilty. Rot in hell SCUM of the earth.
Lets hope they are shiting in their pants right now. How would you feel knowing you’re going to jail for probably the rest of you’re life.
They are out on bond, have no passports. Have comfort in knowing they will be ass meat for the young studs in prison.
there going to Club Fed .. in Lompoc or Tehachpi.. or one of the other lesser low risk Federal resorts in
Oregon ….known a few to end up there in the whit collar crime world. sorry not as harsh as you think for these two old BS Peddlers!!
they will have to serve 2/3 of their terms!! no less in the Fed System!
I invested my entire saving I hope to vet compensated
Sorry to hear that, by the time the receiver is finished there will be nothing left for the investors. The receivership is a legal way to grab whatever money is there and will not quit until they get every cent for themselves. Their main objective is to get paid, they couldn’t care less about you.
Is your statement about the investors not getting anything back a valid one? Do you know if there is phone line that us investors can call on to find out if there is any chance of us getting any of our money back?
I’m beyond frustrated with this! My own money, my husbands money and my moms retirement money all went into this scam 🙁
No one will know how much you’re getting back or when it’ll happen until the clawbacks are wrapped up. The Receiver has already gotten a few million (roughly) from the clawbacks and third-party repayments, he’s looking to sell the ATM business by the end of the year which I’m hoping will be worth a good sum of money (and it will decrease his billings since he will no longer need to operate it), and he’s still untangling assets owned by Oasis and Studio Maui.
I can understand your frustration over this not moving faster, but financial messes don’t untangle themselves and it can be very time consuming even on a small scale.
In any event, I can tell you is that you’re likely not going to get back all that you lost. Ed & Joel lived lavish lifestyles and operated a few other companies using NASI’s funds. At least a few people suspect that they used those companies to hide money. I’m in that camp. A lot of the money given to them over the years is likely gone. That being said, the best shot for recovery is with the Receivership. If they only distributed whatever was in the bank at time of shut down, you’d be looking at $4 for every thousand you lost. At least now there’s a few million to distribute and if the lawsuits are successful, that will go up. Plus factor in the sale of the ATM business…
And now that things have settled down a bit at work and I’m finally moved into my new place, I can get back to crunching numbers.
Could it be that the Fed’s could find more charges to file against them for funneling money to their other companies. It could be that they ran the other companies the same way.
I just want them to never leave prison walking, rather would like to see it feet first.
Well, Ed & Joel were charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and aiding and abetting. ..so they can’t be charged with any of that again unless they find new, separate instances of wrongdoing. Like when Ed depreciated assets that didn’t exist. That’s tax fraud at the least.
Well I hope they continue to find new charges to file against them.
8 more days till our new year. I’m so glad they will be having a bologna sandwich for their new years dinner.
So are they in prison now?
They should be, although the Bureau of Prisons doesn’t yet show them as “in custody.” This could be due to a delay in updating the system. I’ll check again this afternoon when I get home from work.
So do we know if these ATMs even existed? I inherited mine from my grandmother when she passed away in 2010, and was sure tempted to purchase when they were offering to sell new ones! I can’t believe all of this has happened and I’m hurting for those who invested thousands upon thousands into these scumbags.
Yes and no. NASI owned like 230 ATMs. These did not necessarily coincide with what the investors thought they owned. Joel admitted that he picked random locations out of the phone book. Some of the locations didn’t even have an ATM, and others had ATMs owned by unrelated entities.
New docs….670 net winners identified. Tell Grim he was right.