Ripping off at least 900 investors, including victims of HurricaneKatrina, of $8 million brought a Baltimore man one of the heftiest sentences for white-collar crime in Maryland history, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett sentenced David McDowell Robinson, 56, to more than 15 years in prison for 27 counts of wire and mail fraud connected to a scheme to defraud investors across the country. Bennett also ordered Robinson to pay more than $3 million in restitution.
“David Robinson?s sentence is one of the longest imposed in Maryland in a white collar crime case and sends a message that law enforcement will not tolerate criminals who prey on the trust of others,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a statement late Thursday.
Robinson pleaded guilty in January to engaging in a Ponzi scheme that promised investors huge returns quickly on their investments.
“This case demonstrates how important it is for people to be cautious about investment proposals that sound too good to be true,” Rosenstein said. “David Robinson perpetrated an $8 million Ponzi scheme that victimized innocent investors, including Hurricane Katrina victims who were induced to invest their money in a worthless venture.”
A Ponzi scheme is defined as a fraudulent investmentoperations that involved paying high profits to investors out of money paid by subsequent investors rather than from money from a legitimate business.
Prosecutors said the businessman promised investors a 20 percent return on $2,500 in 60 days, a 25 percent return on $5,000 in 90 days and a 30 percent return on $10,000 in 120 days, but never delivered the money.
At an earlier hearing for Robinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jefferson Gray said Robinson committed the fraud to keep up his appearance as a successful graduate of one of Baltimore?s most prestigious private schools and an Ivy League university.
“A lot of the reason he committed these crimes was to make himself look financially successful, financially astute,” Gray said. “In other words, the type of person you would expect a grad of Gilman, Cornell and University of Maryland School of Law to be.”
Among those Robinson scammed out of funds were survivors of Hurricane Katrina, prosecutors said.
Starting in November 2005, Robinson dispatched an employee to Gulfport, Miss., where he solicited about $80,000 in investments from residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast area as a result of that presentation, prosecutors said.
