DENVER—Former Colorado attorney and real estate investment manager Thomas B. Evans was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal prison for mail and wire fraud that caused at least 77 investors to lose a total of about $12.3 million. The fraud involved investments in Texas apartment complexes, including some Dallas-area properties.
U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello sentenced Evans to 168 months behind bars, the maximum advised amount for his crimes, as well as five year probation, the maximum time for court supervision after his release. He was ordered to pay $12.3 million in restitution, according to the Denver Business Journal.
The judge called Evans “a disgrace to the legal profession” who made “no attempt to pay back his victims ... Somewhere along the way, your moral compass was somehow compromised.”
The judge said she imposed the maximum sentence to show the seriousness of the offense and to protect society “from further crimes by you.”
He had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in January 2012 in a case that Arguello said was similar to a Ponzi scheme.
Evans, owner and president of Evans Real Estate Group LLC, told investors he was putting money into rental properties in Texas that he would renovate get occupied and then sell for profit.
Click Denver Business Journal to read the full story.
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