Federal prosecutors want Jon Michael Harder to get 15 years in prison for state’s largest investor-fraud case.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Federal prosecutors want former Sunwest CEO Jon Michael Harder to get 15 years in prison after he was convicted in the state’s largest investor-fraud case.
Harder pled guilty to one felony count each of mail fraud and money laundering. He was initially charged with 56 counts of fraud, money laundering, among others.
Federal prosecutors accused Harder of operating the Sunwest enterprise as a “Ponzi scheme” starting in 2006. Even as Sunwest began to collapse, Harder “went on an acquisition binge to fund his business empire and to mask his losses and the commingling of funds,” according to the indictment. He used private jets to travel around the country to court more investors.
From 2006 to 2008, Sunwest acquired assisted living facilities at the rate of about one per week, prosecutors said in the indictment. Sunwest was a network of companies that bought, constructed and managed a nationwide collection of assisted living facilities.
(SOURCE: Statesman Journal)
The sentencing portion of his trial is scheduled to last two days that will wrap up today.
Dwight Briske, president of Kings Manor LLC, a 64-unit assisted-living center in upstate Washington, said he’s planning on making the trip to Portland to watch the sentencing Tuesday.
“He was doing some skullduggery,” Briske said.
Kings Manor lost at least $500,000 from 2003 to 2009, when Sunwest managed the property. Sunwest often failed to pay bills on time at the assisted living center – even for such necessities as food and electricity – even as the business turned monthly revenues of up to $200,000.
(SOURCE: OregonLive.com)
Harder’s defense team is hoping he is sentenced to five years in prison.
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