By The Chronicle staff
An unlicensed “investment adviser” from Vancouver, Washington, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to 75 months in prison for mail fraud in connection with his scheme to defraud investors, including friends and family members, out of more than $4 million, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown last week.
The defendant, Charles Richard Burgess, 67, “originally tried to blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the loss of victim funds. But in fact, Burgess had lost the bulk of investors’ money many years earlier and had concealed the losses from them,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
At Burgess’ sentencing hearing on Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge David Estudillo addressed the “long-lasting effects of the crime on the victims.”
Estudillo told Burgess, “To lie, to cheat, to steal seem to be the values you were living by,” according to the news release.
“It is heartbreaking to read the victim statements describing how their lives have been dramatically altered — no retirement, no funds to care for disabled children, in one instance a victim’s home placed at risk of foreclosure,” Brown said in a written statement. “From the mid-1990s until 2021, Mr. Burgess led his victims — mostly friends and family members — to believe that he was successfully investing their funds for retirement. He sent fake statements showing significant…
