Magnolia resident James Liddell was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 57 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $1,175,518 in restitution for wire fraud.
Magnolia Voice was the first to report the story back in February 2010 when Liddell was originally charged. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2010 and turned himself in to authorities. The 57 year old pleaded guilty in June 2010.
Liddell was taken into custody, and his bond was revoked earlier this year when he continued to promote an investment scheme regarding real estate in Eastern Washington. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez told Liddell ?you have no empathy for the feelings of others… Any violation of supervised release and you can add another three years to your prison sentence.?
According to the indictment and other records in the case, Liddell induced thirteen different investors to provide him with more than $3,000,000 for his alleged business. Some of the victims lived in Magnolia and Queen Anne.
Between 2003 and 2009, Liddell claimed his business was rehabilitating point of sale machines and selling them to a large area drug store chain. Liddell represented to the investors that they would ?own a series of contracts? with the machine purchasers. Liddell provided promissory notes to investors outlining high rates of interest on the loans and promising investors would receive up to 50% of the profits from the sales of the machines. However, no machines were ever bought or sold to the Seattle retailer, and there were no contracts for any such sales. Some of the money was used to pay ?returns? to earlier investors, but Liddell used $1.2 million for his own benefit.
Prosecutors say Liddell ?stole over a million dollars from victims whom he conned into believing he was a friend and experienced business person who could be trusted with their money. Mr. Liddell met many of his victims through contacts in his neighborhood and through school connections with his children. He preyed on his victims by gaining their respect as a friend and neighbor prior to soliciting loans for a business he knew was a total sham. In order to further his scheme, he repeatedly fabricated documents and provided bogus reasons to explain away bounced checks and missed payment deadlines until he found a new victim to supply him with funds needed to pay off his last victim. As a result of his fraud, several victims are facing severe financial hardship including the possibility of bankruptcy.?
One victim told the judge that Liddell ?was pressuring me for more and more money, even when he knew it would have put us over the brink.?
?It was literally the guy next door who bilked friends and neighbors,? said U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan when Liddell was indicted last April.
Liddell?s wife, Leslie Collins, who was originally implicated in the case was not charged. Liddell came to the defense of his wife, writing a letter to authorities saying that they were undergoing a divorce and she had no idea what was going on with his financial dealings.
The case was investigated by the FBI White Collar Crime Section with significant assistance from the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) and the Seattle Police Department. The case was prosecuted as part of President Barack Obama?s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.
Liddell was previously convicted in King County Superior Court for ten counts of theft. In 1987, he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison on those charges.
He can die in that OR prison. BTW, Leslie Collins is every bit as guilty as Liddell. The fact that they remain in the Magnolia house and their children attend a private school us very, very disturbing.
Your a disturbed person, bringing innocent children into it…. And hiding behind your words with no name.
yes Seattlestrawberry, postings without real names are the height of cowardice.
John Doe
What on earth could lead anyone to get involved in such an obviously suspect “investment” idea? (Rhetorical question, I think I know.) Even the description sounds so laughable… “you now own part of a contract for refurbishing POS machines that have been pre-purchased by pharmacy X… but I dont actually have any… I am just the middle man.” Kind of sad. I guess this guy must have been pretty darn slick and convincing… to at least a few people anyway. Too bad that some of the people who said “no thanks” didnt drop a dime on him early on.
They weren’t so much interested in the investment, they were helping out a good, trusted friend on his business. That’s why this thing stinks so bad and why the judge nailed him.
Wow, less than 5 years? Not really that much of a deterrent. Why not give him 10-15?
It was a plea bargain. The range under the agreement was 40-57 months. The judge gave him the maximum sentence.
I am a friend of his wife. She and their children are also “suffering” for the personal scam he portrayed upon them. She was scammed by her husband who conned her too. A conman is a conman period! She is innocent, there was a full investigation and she was not charged. To other commentors: Leave the comments about her and the children lives out of it. Are you so shallow & vindictive that you would place shame upon innocent children?
Those innocent children can receive a fine education at Catherine Blaine. The guilty wife can join her guilty husband in prison for the crime of actively soliciting loans. Foster care is required here.
I don’t understand why people need to comment, unless you were affected by this scam. The law determines the sentence and who is guilty. Making comments about their family and how they live is just not necessary. Why does it matter to anyone where the kids go to school? To comment otherwise is really just to gossip. Not cool. Not nice.
They live on stolen money. Not cool. Not nice. Hope this helps.
Hard to live w/someone for several years and not know a bit of what is going on, especially when there were conversations that the wife was either a part of or was there during the discussion of some of Liddell’s scams. So, to say she was innocent….hummm. Hard to swallow.
As I’ve already pointed out, she was an active participant in the scam. Working in getting her to join her man in the slammer where she belongs.
Nevertheless the query continues to be, do they truly belong inside the opposition with mbt? shoes?