CLEVELAND,
Ohio – A Macedonia man who defrauded senior citizen investors out of
more than $570,000, in part to feed his gambling and prescription pill
addictions, was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years in federal prison.
William
Callam, 61, made false statements to three investors from Lake County
and used their money not for his business, Blackstone Real Estate Group,
but for himself and his family. The scheme was the latest for a man who
has racked up multiple criminal convictions in recent years for
defrauding investors.
Callam pleaded guilty in January to a wire
fraud charge, as well as four counts of mail fraud, and agreed to serve
a sentence of between 63 and 78 months in federal prison. U.S. District
Judge James Gwin decided to sentence him on the high end of that range.
He
also ordered Callam to pay more than $574,000 in restitution to the
victims. In addition, the judge had the U.S. Marshals Service take
Callam into custody following the sentencing.
Callam,
through Blackstone, defrauded a married couple from Mentor and a person
in Eastlake starting in 2013, doing so by telling investors that
Blackstone was in the business of financing loans to buy and
rehabilitate commercial property. Callam told investors that loans were
secured by mortgages on the property.
Callam
told them that investments in Blackstone were very liquid, that others
had invested and guaranteed a steady 6 percent rate of return. All of
those claims, as well as statements that investing in Blackstone was a
safe venture, were false, charging documents say.
Investors liquidated their annuities, insurance policies and other retirement assets to invest in Callam’s company.
The
charging documents state that Callam created false investment
statements and mortgage notes and provided them to the couple in Mentor.
That couple lost $381,571.47, while the Eastlake investor lost
$192,575.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan Miller wrote
in a sentencing memo that Callam abused the investors’ trust and stole
money they saved for retirement.
“This
was not a situation in which the victims were defrauded at random by an
unknown perpetrator,” Miller wrote. “To the contrary, Callam
intentionally targeted the victims because they were elderly and trusted
him.”
She also wrote that he has a
“significant and concerning” history of crimes similar to those in the
current case. Callam was convicted of theft in 2007 for defrauding two
victims out of more than $68,000 by falsely stating he was part of an
organization to aid senior citizens and promising to invest their money
in annuities.
He was also convicted
that year for defrauding four others of $49,000 by using money given to
him for annuity payments and using it for himself.
Callam
was also convicted in 2015 for defrauding a victim of $55,000 by
falsely holding himself out as an insurance agent who was certified to
sell annuities with a guaranteed 3 percent rate of return, Miller wrote.
Matthew
Williams, an attorney for Callam, wrote in a sentencing memo that some
of the money Callam took was used to feed gambling and prescription
painkiller addictions. It said Callam no longer abuses medications.
Dean Valore, another lawyer for Callam,
said in a brief interview that he was surprised by Gwin’s decision to
have his client taken into custody following the sentencing. While
federal judges have discretion to do so and consider a number of factors
when deciding whether a defendant should remain free or be in custody,
defendants in white collar cases are frequently allowed to self-report
to prison.
Valore said Callam was “successful” in following the conditions of his bond after he pleaded guilty.
Full Article & Source:
Macedonia man sent to prison for bilking elderly investors out of $570,000
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