2 Investigators: Conman Sentenced To 8 Years
CHICAGO (CBS) A career conman whose nationwide crime spree was exposed by the 2 Investigators was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison.
As Pam Zekman reports, even the defendant agreed with the government that the criminal justice system has not deterred him.
Over more than a decade, Michael Anthony Nelson has reinvented himself as a banker, a lawyer and business consultant here in Chicago.
Small businessmen, big banks and West Side churches lost $1.4 million Nelson's scam.
"Within weeks of getting out of prison in 2004 he was up and running in Chicago, committing the crime that he was convicted of in this case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Drury said.
He wowed staff and clients with fake degrees, corporate connections and City Hall clout. For example, after a supposed meeting with the mayor, he bragged about landing a $12 million contract.
"He just said we are now the official consultants for the city of Chicago," former employee Rene Sotelo said previously.
The biggest losers were two West Side churches that gave nelson more than $400,000 to purchase 200 parcels of land for projects that Nelson never bought.
"The fact that Mr. Nelson could come and take churches for hundreds of thousands of dollars, as the judge said, where they're scrimping for money, was especially egregious in this case," Drury said.
In court, Nelson apologized to the victims but blamed his life of crime on untreated sexual and physical child abuse and an incurable disease diagnosed as an adult. Federal Judge Reuben Castillo said even if that is true it "does not justify going out and ripping off people left and right."
Drury said Nelson is "a serial conman who we don't believe can be deterred."
In addition to the eight years in prison, Nelson was ordered to pay more than $700,000 in restitution. He still faces charges in California, where he allegedly stole the identity of a lawyer to commit yet another fraud.
How does an investor protect himself or herself from a skilled con man like this? Check out their claimed degrees and credentials before trusting them with your money.
