Corporate fraud brings long sentences

Bahamas News.Net
Wednesday 6th August, 2008

A US federal judge has handed down the first sentences to defendants convicted in a US$1.9 billion corporate fraud case.

Donald Ayers, a former chief operating officer with National Century Financial Enterprises, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the fraud which prosecutors likened to the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

Randolph Speer, the company's former chief financial officer, has received a 12-year sentence.

Both men were ordered to repay billions of dollars to investors.

Speer and Ayers were aligned to five former executives with National Century convicted in March of defrauding investors over several years.

National Century was a health care financing company whose executives authorised millions of dollars in unsecured loans to health care providers, then misled investors about the loans.

As the money owed to the company mounted, National Century declared bankruptcy in November 2002.

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