Lowlife Crook Who Ran Upstate NY Ponzi Scheme Fleecing Victims Out Of Million$ Gets 5 To 16 Years; One Disabled Victim Who Invested $1.5 Million Was Convinced To Kick In Add'l $300K By Refinancing Free & Clear Home, Now Faces Foreclosure

In Albany, New York, the Albany Times-Union reports:

• A financial crook who amassed more than $5 million in a 13-year Ponzi scheme that preyed on investors was sentenced [] to the maximum 5⅓ to 16 years in prison as his victims demanded justice for the theft of their life savings.
  
  Frederick E. Monroe, 59, of Queensbury fleeced victims who ranged from his family and close friends to a grieving widow to a disabled woman — all while he lived a lavish lifestyle with their money.
  
  Monroe could have faced as little as 3 to 9 years behind bars for his guilty plea in December to money-laundering, grand larceny, violating the state's general business law and scheming to defraud. Instead, County Judge Peter Lynch imposed the maximum prison time allowed, effective immediately.
  
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  [One] victim, Katherine Shelley of Warren County, invested $1.5 million with Monroe that she had been awarded from a severe 1993 injury that rendered her disabled and unable to work. Monroe later told Shelley her funds were getting low, convinced her to take out a $300,000 mortgage on a house that was already paid for and to invest the mortgage money. Now, because of Monroe's theft, she faces foreclosure.
  
  "As I am without any other funds," Shelley told the judge, crying, "I have been required to borrow money to pay for utilities and have been notified that my electrical services at my home will be terminated if I am unable to make up the payments that I have missed. I don't know how I can do that. I am totally disabled and unable to work. The money I provided to Mr. Monroe was what I intended to rely on to support me for the rest of my life."

For more, Maximum sentence for Guilderland Ponzi scheme predator.