A British man was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering in a case in which one of his four co-defendants — Rayan Lakshmanan, 48, of Davis — pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The British expatriate, Laurence Miles, 76, had been living in Southern California during the time of the offenses.
According to his guilty plea, since at least 2009 and continuing through December 2015, Miles defrauded scores of victims of at least $5.6 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California reported.
Miles admitted that along with his four co-defendants — Lakshmanan, as well as Shirley Molina, 70, of Hawthorne; Munsif Shirazi, 49, of Bell Canyon; and Robert Stephens, 65, of Napa — he told people that an heiress to a billion-dollar estate was very ill and was in need of medical attention.
Miles and his co-defendants convinced their victims that the heiress’ money was tied up in a secret probate case and that, in return for money to help pay for the heiress’ medical costs, Miles and his accomplices would return to their victims $1,000 for every $1 they invested in the heiress’ estate.
Miles and his accomplices promised their victims that they would see the returns on their investments after the money was released from probate. In truth, there was no dying heiress with a large estate, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Instead, Miles and his co-defendants used the victims’ money to support their own lifestyles.
On Dec. 3, 2015, a federal grand jury indicted Miles and charged him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 22 counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering. Pursuant to his plea agreement, Miles pleaded guilty to one count of each of the charges and the remaining charges were dismissed.
Lakshmanan, as well as the three other co-defendants, have pleaded guilty to their respective roles in the conspiracy and will be sentenced later this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
In sentencing Miles, the court found that he had been a leader of the fraud, controlled the money and exercised authority over some of his accomplices.
In addition to the nine-year prison term, Miles was ordered to serve a three-year period of supervised release and to pay a forfeiture money judgment of $5,6 million.