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RICHMOND — A Miami businessman who stole $126 million from hundreds of people across the country was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison Tuesday after a judge heard three hours of wrenching, often tearful testimony from eight victims.
Edward Hugh Okun was convicted in March on 23 counts, including fraud and money laundering. Okun, 58, owned two Richmond companies that held money from clients seeking to defer capital gains on property sales. Instead, he used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a jet, a yacht, luxury cars and expensive jewelry.
"The toll of human loss and suffering Mr. Okun's unbridled greed produced is enormous," U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne said before handing down the sentence.
Rob Wagner, the federal public defender, said afterward that Okun will appeal both his conviction and the sentence.
Federal prosecutors had sought the maximum 400-year sentence. Defense attorneys, who said Okun suffers from heart trouble, asked for a term of 10 to 15 years. Victims who attended the hearing were satisfied with the judge's punishment, which was 50 years less than Bernard Madoff got for bilking investors out of tens of billions of dollars.
"I'm thrilled that he's never going to get out of prison," said Bonnie Schloss of Silver Spring, Md., who lost $335,000 in Okun's scheme.
Okun didn't speak before sentencing. Throughout the hearing, he mostly gazed down at the defense table and showed no emotion as witnesses described how their lives were wrecked.
"My children had to go live with their dad because I couldn't afford to feed them," Darlin' Boudreau of Seattle said, her voice cracking as she fought back tears. Boudreau, 56, said her goal of early retirement was dashed by the loss of nearly $500,000.
She and others spoke about the shock of learning that money they worked a lifetime to earn was squandered on things like Okun's 131-foot yacht, which he named after a woman he married in a $200,000 ceremony in 2005, and a party where guests were treated to shots of brandy that cost about $1,000 apiece.
"Who can calculate the sleepless nights?" said Candace Graham of Portola Valley, Calif. "Who can calculate the fear of losing one's home? Who can calculate the anxiety attacks? Who can calculate the total loss of trust in ever being able to place money in anyone else's hands?"
Graham, who said she is still owed $3.1 million of the nearly $5 million she lost, described Okun as "a man of insatiable greed" and urged Payne to send a message to other potential white-collar criminals by imposing a long sentence.
Some of the victims said the stress brought on by Okun led to physical ailments. Joel Palmer of Golden, Colo., who lost $131,000, said he had a heart attack and has been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension.
James Keeter, a 75-year-old landscape architect from Boerne, Texas, said the anguish of his $480,000 loss caused a stroke.
Payne also heard from Okun's first wife, Carol May of Toronto. She said Okun spent freely during their four-year marriage in the 1970s, lured her relatives into bad business deals and became so volatile that he frightened her. She said after her father filed criminal and civil charges, Okun fled to the United States and left her $1.5 million in debt.
Okun's victims continue to insist that the government is partly to blame for their losses. The IRS requires commercial property sellers who want to defer capital gains taxes to deposit their proceeds with a "qualified intermediary" until they buy another property, but those companies are largely unregulated.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Dry said Okun was well aware of that lack of oversight.
"Mr. Okun found a niche, and he exploited it to steal people's money," he said.
