If Conroy receives the maximum sentence, it would be the stiffest penalty yet in the 28-month-old ongoing investigation, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records in Orlando. Six managers and equity partners in Evergreen have received lighter sentences in lieu of returning a small portion of the alleged stolen funds.

According to court records, Conroy is alleged to have directly advised Evergreen owner William J. Zylka of New Vernon, NJ in the scheme. Investors believed they were putting their money into U.S. government mortgage-backed securities that would return an annual interest rate of 9% to 12%, documents filed by court-appointed trustee R. W. "Bill" Cuthill allege.

Zylka, previously committed, faces six to 18 years in prison for his alleged theft of $27.7 million, the largest in the scheme. Zylka and his associates, working out of an office at Capital Plaza in Downtown Orlando, are accused of pulling off the second largest scam in Florida history, next only to the 1985 ESM Government Securities Fund fraud that bilked private investors, public institutions and government entities of $315 million, according to Bankruptcy Court records.