Defendant Victimized Precious-Metals Investors : 4 1/2-Year Sentence Given for Telephone-Sales Fraud

A federal judge Monday sentenced an Australian known for his repeated involvement with telephone-sales fraud in Orange County to 4 1/2 years in prison, less than half the sentence sought by prosecutors.

James G. Eglitis, 40, had pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud in his roles as a salesman for Intech Investment Corp. of Newport Beach and a principal of the California Mint, a firm with offices in Huntington Beach and Santa Ana.

Authorities said both enterprises were schemes to swindle people anxious to invest in precious metals. Investors lost $2 million in Intech and $500,000 in California Mint, authorities said.

In addition to the prison sentence handed down in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real gave Eglitis five years’ probation and ordered an unspecified amount of restitution.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of 10 years.

“We recommended 10 years for Eglitis because of his extensive conduct,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers.

“He would jump from boiler room to boiler room, and repeatedly went after the same victim,” Bowers said. “In one case, he went back to the same person three different times. He would bleed them dry and keep going until they had nothing else to lose.”

Eglitis’ lawyer, Robert Ramsey Jr., claimed that prosecutors sought an unusually harsh sentence. Ramsey said the average sentence for defendants who commit similar crimes in Southern California is between 40 and 52 months.

Ramsey suggested that Eglitis’ crimes were not much worse than those of another Intech salesman, Mark Rattet. Rattet last month was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but Real suspended the sentence and ordered Rattet to spend weekends totaling 60 days in jail.

Despite a probation report recommending the maximum penalty for Eglitis, Ramsey said, 10 years wouldn’t be fair “in light of what the other defendant got.”

“Judge Real is a very independent person. I’m sure he took into account what this type of case is really worth,” Ramsey said.

In the Intech case, all other codefendants have pleaded guilty. Prosecutors alleged that the mastermind was Matthew Valentine of Newport Beach, who has yet to be sentenced.

Valentine is also accused of ordering the beating of Randy Elvidge, a former employee who discovered the swindle and urged investors to withdraw.

In the Intech scheme, clients from across the country sent the firm checks and precious metals to open credit accounts for buying gold, silver, platinum and copper. Intech telephone salesmen promised clients profits of up to 625% and told them that there was little or no risk of losing money, according to authorities. But when clients tried to close their accounts, Intech failed to refund their money.

There were about 400 victims of the scheme, which operated between 1983 and 1986, according to prosecutors.

California Mint operated in a similar fashion, according to federal charges. The sales staff combined high-pressure telephone tactics with promises of quick profits and safe investments.

Eglitis came to the United States in 1983. He had served 16 years in the Australian navy as a radar operator.

Real ordered that Eglitis be transferred after finishing his sentence to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for possible deportation.