SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Southern California man has pleaded guilty to mail fraud for raising $13 million through a phony Internet company that used late “Happy Days” actor Tom Bosley as unwitting spokesman.
Seventy-three-year-old James Eberhart entered pleas Monday to two charges and could face a decade in federal prison.
Eberhart’s been held since 2012, when he was arrested on his yacht in Malaysia after 12 years as a fugitive.
Authorities say in the 1990s, Eberhart and Eugene Carriere ran a Newport Beach firm that supposedly was creating an entertainment website called YES.
They used dozens of “boiler room” telemarketers to raise millions — with about half the money going to offshore accounts.
Carriere was arrested in Thailand in 2005 after six years on the run. He got three years in prison.
