Man gets 99-year prison term for securities fraud

A North Texas jury has sentenced a former Maryland lawyer to 99 years in prison for organizing a fraudulent multistate investment scheme. According to evidence presented in state district court in McKinney, Edward S. Digges Jr. defrauded 130 Texas investors, most elderly, out of at least $10 million. His Millennium Terminal Investment Program offered securities that investors were told were based on point-of-sale terminals used for credit and debit transactions, according to the Texas State Securities Board, State Securities Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford says Digges "has a long history of defrauding some of our most vulnerable citizens." She added that the lengthy sentence "ensures that he will never again do so." Digges had previously served two years in federal prison for mail fraud and had a $3.6 million civil judgment against him for overbilling.