Local News in Brief : Theft Nets Him 4 Years
A man who pleaded guilty to charges in a scheme in which more than 500 investors in California and Texas were cheated out of nearly $5 million was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison.
“We’re dealing with a sophisticated theft that victimized 400 to 500 people,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Altman said in sentencing David Wiksell, 48, of Van Nuys. Many of the investors were fundamentalist Christians whose money was solicited at meetings of church groups.
Wiksell, vice president for investments of the bankrupt Comstock Financial Services of Universal City, pleaded guilty in January to one count of violating the state Corporations Code by selling unqualified securities.
His co-defendant, Roy L. Comstock, chairman of the defunct company, pleaded no contest last year to the illegal sale of securities and was sentenced to four years in prison in August.
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