CORNWALL, Ontario – The sentencing for a former high-profile Cornwallite continues bounce from date to date, with no indication of when it will actually take place.
Wise pleaded guilty to running a $129.5-million ponzi scheme by selling fraudulent certificates of deposit to 1,200 people through various banking entities between 2004 and 2009.
A so-called “status conference” concerning Wise’s sentencing took place in a San Francisco, Calif. courtroom this week, and an official with the court confirmed another date for a similar hearing will take place early next month.
But the source could not say for sure if Wise will actually be sentenced at that time.
The former Cornwall alderman and Cornwall Royals owner had been on the run from American authorities until he surrendered in April 2012.
He pleaded guilty in 2012 to 18 counts of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and tax evasion.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in a federal court in San Francisco where he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Wise is co-operating with the government to recover funds, his lawyer Paul Wolf told the Bloomberg news service.
“He is doing everything he can to make amends and put this right,” Wolf is quoted by Bloomberg.
Prosecutors said Wise and co-defendant Jacqueline Hoegel, who ran their investment office, sold $129.5 million in fraudulent certificates of deposit and promised a 16 per cent rate of return. They instead used investors’ funds to pay off earlier investors and to make luxury purchases, including Wise’s property on a Caribbean island, prosecutors said.
