Local News in Brief : El Toro : Fraud Sentence Upset Over Failed Plea Bargain

The 20-year fraud sentence of a former Orange County resident was vacated Wednesday by federal appellate judges who ruled that prosecutors failed to live up to their end of a plea bargain.

The unusual ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that Todd Fisch, 28, must be sentenced again for his conviction for helping swindle 1,600 would-be investors in gold and other precious metals out of $8.5 million.

The firm, called First Trading Group, operated out of El Toro and Los Angeles. Authorities alleged the scheme was masterminded by Joel Fisch, 58, Todd’s father, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last October. Todd’s mother, Joan, was given probation after she admitted involvement.

Todd Fisch’s lawyers claimed that in return for his guilty plea, he cooperated in the investigation into the swindle. While prosecutors agreed to advise the sentencing judge about his help, Assistant U.S. Atty. Leon Weidman merely said that he had cooperated, which the appellate judges found failed “to fulfill the government’s obligation.”

The sentences for father and son were among the toughest ever handed down in the United States for so-called boiler-room fraud. Weidman said the family hired a group of salesmen who “like a pack of great white sharks engaged in a feeding frenzy over the life savings of hundreds of hard-working Americans.”

Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors could be reached for comment.