LOS ANGELES – A Highland man who used his work history as a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy to gain investors’ trust and later invest millions of dollars with him, only to use their money to fund his extravagant lifestyle, was sentenced today to 168 months in federal prison.
Christopher Lloyd Burnell, 51, was sentenced by United States District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, who also ordered him to pay $7,592,491 in restitution. At today’s hearing, Judge Fitzgerald described Burnell as “one of the most evil people that I have ever dealt with in the law” and ordered him immediately remanded into custody.
Burnell pleaded guilty on May 10 to 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of filing a false tax return.
Burnell falsely claimed to have accumulated tens of millions of dollars from lawsuits he purportedly won against the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and Kaiser Permanente; from selling a patent for an air-cooled, bullet-resistant vest to Oakley Inc.; and through investments in small businesses and money-lending opportunities. Burnell left the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in May 2008. The scheme began no later than November 2010 and continued until September 2017.
After deceiving victims into believing he was a wealthy businessman, Burnell then induced victims to invest up to hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time with him by offering exclusive investment opportunities that promised rates of…
