Irvine Man Gets 6 Years for $2.8-Million Scam

An Irvine boiler-room operator has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for defrauding 308 investors out of $2.8 million.

Jerold Nabridge, 55, pleaded guilty on June 24 to three counts of mail fraud, security fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. His scam involved three Orange County companies selling fictitious oil and gas leases and nonexistent oil wells to elderly, out-of-state investors.

He was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler.

Nabridge’s attorney, Allan Stokke, said Tuesday that he was disappointed in the sentence because his client paid $650,000 into a restitution fund for his victims.

“I think it was an unprecedented amount that has been returned to the victims at such an early time in the proceedings,” Stokke said in explanation. “We were hoping for somewhere between three and five years. I wouldn’t have thought that it would have had to be quite that high.”

While law enforcement officials contend that Orange County is a hotbed of boiler-room operations, Nabridge’s was one of the more “extraordinary” to surface recently because of the extent of the losses suffered by three families, said Nancy Wieben Stock, assistant U.S. attorney in Santa Ana.

Robert E. McDowell of Beaver, Pa., lost $245,750 over 2 1/2 years. He started out by sending Nabridge a $1,000 check--which had been solicited over the telephone in September, 1985--to purchase gas and oil rights in Hancock County, Ill., according to court documents.

By the winter of 1987-88, McDowell was forwarding checks of $16,000 to $30,000 to purchase interests in producing oil wells. Last January, the documents said, McDowell sent Nabridge a check for $38,500 for the supposed construction of an oil storage tank, which was necessary because his fictional wells were producing so much.

“This has proven to be a real hardship both mentally and physically on my wife and myself,” McDowell wrote to the U.S. attorney’s office. “Since both of us are over 65 years of age and retired, this money cannot be replaced.”

McDowell was Nabridge’s first major victim, Stock said, but it was John B. Beresford of Phoenix who took the biggest fall. Between February, 1986, and February, 1988, Beresford invested $430,000 in Nabridge’s schemes.

“Beresford had no personal contact with the business premises of Midwest Mineral Properties (one of the three fraudulent Nabridge companies) until early 1988 when he flew to Irvine, California, and was rudely awakened by the discovery that Mineral Properties offices did not exist,” the court documents said.

And then there were Max and Virginia Marotz, ages 80 and 79 respectively, who lost $96,200 to Nabridge through a company called Nebco, Inc. On one occasion, the Marotzes sent $15,000 to construct an oil well, which they were later told was producing 100 barrels a day.

According to Stock, Nabridge lived a lavish life style--complete with a Rolls Royce and European vacations--on the money he bilked from his investors. Stokke, the defense attorney, said Tuesday that “lavish” is an overstatement.

“He traveled back and forth between California (his businesses) and Florida (his family) frequently,” Stokke said. “I think he took a vacation in Europe one time. I think there was a purchase of a Rolls Royce. But that was sold and I believe that the bulk of the money was used for restitution.”

Stock said that Nabridge’s victims will receive restitution proportionate to their losses. The three major losers will receive about 50 cents for every dollar they lost. The other 305 victims will receive about 30 cents to the dollar.

Nabridge, who has been free on bail, is scheduled to begin serving his sentence Oct. 3.