FAYETTEVILLE -- Calling him a "con man's con man," a federal court judge on Friday sentenced Allen Wichtendahl to prison for 22 years and ordered him to pay more than $1 million restitution to 333 victims.
Concluding a three-day sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks sentenced Wichtendahl to 20 years on his guilty pleas to separate mail and securities fraud charges, to run concurrently, and to 10 years on his plea to money laundering, with two of those years to run consecutively to the mail and securities fraud sentences.
Brooks also ordered that Wichtendahl pay $1,046,860.02 restitution to the victims on a pro-rata basis.
Wichtendahl, 62, slim and gray-haired, wearing an orange and beige jail uniform, stood with federal public defender Bruce Eddy before Brooks and declined to give a statement before the judge handed down the sentence.
In sentencing Wichtendahl, Brooks said he took into account Wichtendahl's age and poor state of health but said the defendant had dedicated most of his adult life to being a con man.
Summing up the two days of testimony about Wichtendahl and his New Vision Technology, which he used to draw in investors, Brooks said: "He's a con man; he's a con man's con man. He was good, but he was a con man."
Recalling videos of Wichtendahl's sales pitches that were recorded by undercover FBI agent Tim Akins and played in court Wednesday, Brooks told Wichtendahl it appeared he could sell anything but that he took the wrong path, resorting to fraudulent and predatory practices to make money.
Brooks said he wondered how Wichtendahl could take money from one investor who was unemployed and made his monthly payments from his savings and use the money for himself.
Remarks by Brooks were echoed by Wichtendahl's ex-wife Dessislava Sapoundjiera, who said he used his families as parts of his schemes. The naturalized American from Bulgaria, who married Wichtendahl in 2000, said Wichtendahl was married five times.
"We were not Allen Wichtendahl's family; we were his victims," she said.
Brooks rejected arguments by Eddy that at least part of New Vision Technology was legitimate.
Eddy pointed to evidence that Wichtendahl and members of New Vision Technology staff were working with Nigerian officials to develop hydro power plants, sources for drinking water and cassava processing plants. Cassava is a tuber used mostly for food.
Eddy argued that if some of New Vision Technology projects were legitimate business endeavors, those investors who put their money into those enterprises should not be counted as victims.
But Brooks said the fact that most of the money invested in New Vision Technology went into Wichtendahl's pocket negated any claims of legitimacy.
"It was just a big con," he said. "The entire scheme was all fraudulent in nature."
Eddy had made more than 40 objections on Wichtendahl's behalf to the court's presentence report. Brooks rejected them all, saying in many cases that Wichtendahl's objections were frivolous or denials of facts he admitted to in his Oct. 17 plea agreement.
An example that seemed to chafe the judge was Wichtendahl's objection to the characterization of his scheme as a Ponzi scheme. Brooks pointed to the paragraph in the plea agreement where Wichtendahl specifically admitted his business was a Ponzi scheme.
In a Ponzi scheme, dividends are paid to existing investors using the money of new investors.
Even though Wichtendahl pleaded guilty to offenses, Brooks said he denied him credit in the sentence calculation for acceptance of responsibility because of the frivolous objections he raised.
According to testimony and court records, Wichtendahl -- through New Vision Technology -- induced people to purchase "parts" or shares in his company on the promise that they would make rich profits from various projects he purported to be developing in Bulgaria and Nigeria.
He reinforced investor confidence by positive email reports, brochures and a website showing highly successful people as company officials. The people really existed but said they had never heard of New Vision Technology and never authorized their photos or biographies to be used.
Wichtendahl and his staff also used aggressive sales tactics with investors, exhorting them to keep up their payments because high dividend projects were about to come together and if they fell behind in their payments, they would lose their entire investment.
Wichtendahl also tugged on investors' sympathies by promising to help poor orphans in Bulgaria and children in Nigeria who lacked clean water and electricity, assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner said.
"He is a dangerous predator and a lifelong con man," Jenner said in arguing to Brooks that he give Wichtendahl the maximum sentence.
A government investigation of Wichtendahl and his New Vision Technology showed that investor money was deposited into bank accounts he controlled. The investigation determined he used most of the company's money on such things as payment for homes, expensive vehicles, clothing, jewelry, dental work, child support and his wedding to co-defendant Diana Stewart.
Stewart was charged with Wichtendahl in the government's 36-count indictment, but the government has agreed to dismiss the charges against her following Wichtendahl's sentencing.
NW News on 07/12/2014