Instead, the information states Burgess “overstated the past performance of the fund, misrepresented the value of investors’ investments on monthly statements, used funds provided by new investors to repay earlier investors and took for himself far more than the agreed 50 percent of pool profits.”
Prosecutors requested Burgess, 67, be sentenced to 97 months in prison, citing aggravating factors of betraying a position of trust, the duration of the crime spanning many years and the amount of money lost. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Wilkinson said once Burgess was under investigation in 2021, he continued to deceive investors by blaming their financial losses on the COVID-19 pandemic and tried to get them to sign settlement forms releasing their claims against him.
“To put it simply, the defendant knowingly wrecked people’s lives,” Wilkinson said. “He lied to people who trusted him to get their money. He lied to them about where the money had gone. He did this day after day, month after month, year after year. And then, when it was too late — many of these victims were near retirement, in retirement — he told them it was all gone.”
Although the investments lost totaled just more than $4.3 million, Wilkinson said the true scope of the damage to the investors was $10.3 million because that’s how much Burgess told them their investments were worth, at one point.
“He told them that, collectively, they had $10.3 million. Those were the numbers that…
