More than a decade after he defrauded elderly clients of nearly $2 million, a 41-year-old Utah man on Wednesday was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to repay the money he stole.
Police arrested Brian Smart, of Lehi, in 2012 in connection with a 2008 investigation by the California Department of Insurance. Investigators started looking into him after victims complained they never received money from Smart, who they’d hired as an insurance agent, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Between May 2005 and March 2006, Smart took $1,810,508 from his clients. Many of his clients were elderly, and the theft left them without any retirement funds.
Smart, who worked for an insurance firm in Anaheim, Calif., defrauded his clients by persuading them to liquidate their annuities and give him the money, which he said he would invest, according to the news release.
Instead of investing the money for the clients, Smart deposited it into his own accounts, buying a home and other things for himself.
He also persuaded a victim to sell her home and let him invest the money, and forged the signature of another victim in order to liquidate her annuity.
Smart moved to Utah in 2006.
Although he repaid his clients about $200,000, those payments stopped in January 2008. Six months later, the California Department of Insurance launched its investigation.
Smart pleaded guilty to nine counts of theft from an elder, three counts of grand theft, forgery, money laundering and using an untrue statement during the purchase/sale of security.
He was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in state prison and ordered to pay $3,621,016 — half for the money he stole and half in fines, according to the news release. Saturday, he remained in the Orange County, Calif., jail, awaiting transfer to prison, according to jail records.
Follow @PaightenHarkins