Ex-Decathlete Sentenced for $45.2M Cannabis Ponzi Scheme Spent $8M in Casinos

A former UCLA decathlete who later represented the Republic of the Philippines at caterpillar tread and theater of operations events has been sentenced to 17.5 years inwards a federal prison house for fraud.

American Philippine citizen David Bunevacz, 53, of Calabasas, Calif. stole to a greater extent than $35 one thousand thousand from investors, $8.1 one thousand thousand of which he blew at casinos, according to federal prosecutors.

Bunevacz duped his victims into believing their money would lead towards funding companies that marketed ganja vape pens.

In reality, he spent the money on “a luxurious domiciliate in Calabasas, Las Vegas trips, jewelry, intriguer handbags, a unstinted birthday political party for his daughter, and horses,” according to court of justice records.

Big in the Philippines

Bunevacz, a famous person inward the Philippines, splurged $218,700 on the birthday political party and bought a racing gymnastic horse for $330,000, court filings state. Some investor monetary resource were used to repay earlier investors, comportment the classic hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme.

Bunevacz registered several racing shell companies to “create the false coming into court that his companies were meshed in legitimate business activities,” according to prosecutors. He distanced himself from these companies past naming other people, including his stepdaughter, as corporate officers.

He raised a sum up of $45.2 zillion in fraudulent investments from more than 100 investors. US District Judge Dale S. Emil Hermann Fischer of the Central District Court of Calif. ruled he was responsible for(p) for losses amounting to more than $35 million.

“The sentiency of violation, the assault on personal dignity, and the lasting trauma [Bunevacz] has caused are rattling often reminiscent of the harm typically associated with wild crimes,” prosecutors said inward a sentencing memorandum. “And, with considerably over a hundred victims, [Bunevacz] caused these harms at a scurf seldom seen.”

Fame and Misfortune

After excelling as a student jock at UCLA, Bunevacz’s performances caught the optic of Filipino sports officials. He was eligible to contend for the land because his mother was a Filipino.

His finest moment came inwards the 1997 southeastern United States Asiatic Games, where he won a gilded medal inward javelin. But his sports vocation finally failed to localise the humankind alight, according to Rappler.

Subsequently, he tried his helping hand at picture show stardom and acted in several films for the Filipino market. He became rag fodder in the country because of his orientation for dating famous actresses and beauty queens.

One, Anjanette Abayari, claimed in a 2015 television system question that Bunevacz had used her as a drugs mule. She was arrested at Guam International Airport in 2009 for possession of illegal narcotics which she claimed to cognize nada about.

Bunevacz has single felony article of faith inward the US for the wrongful sale of securities in 2017.

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