Alberto Vilar sentenced in NYC to 9 years in jail

Opera-loving philanthropist Alberto Vilar was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison by a judge who credited his giving spirit but said he wanted to send a message to money managers that fraud will not be tolerated because it can damage confidence in the economy. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Sullivan also fined Vilar $25,000 and ordered him to pay $21.9 million in restitution and to forfeit more than $22 million. Vilar, 69, has been imprisoned since soon after a jury convicted him in November 2008 of conspiracy fraud for cheating investors of $40 million through his San Francisco-based company, Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. Sullivan called Vilar a complicated man of "tremendous generosity" who had donated millions of dollars to charities, the arts and individuals. He said Vilar needed to be punished to send a stern message to other money managers entrusted by people to protect their assets. "If they don't believe that, the entire economy can suffer," Sullivan said. Sullivan announced his sentence soon after an 89-year-old doctor who uses a wheelchair and the man's two daughters described how their family had been overwhelmed by debt for much of the past decade because they could not recover the money they had invested with Vilar. "We have suffered terribly," said one of the daughters, Lisa Mayer. Vilar, in a rambling statement, said he objected to a prosecutor's claim that he was not sorry for his crimes. "I don't know where the government gets the idea I am not responsible or remorseful," he said. "I deeply regret any inconvenience that our 14,000 clients might have suffered." He said he believed that there were only five victims in the fraud and that there was a 95 percent likelihood that all would recover their losses.