Man Receives 45 Months in Fraud Case

A former Mission Viejo insurance agent who defrauded three elderly investors out of their life savings and then fled was ordered Monday to serve 45 months in prison and repay $595,000.

Jacques (Jack) Doigny, 43, had faced up to 30 years in prison after a guilty plea in July to charges of securities and mail fraud.

After his April arrest in Arizona, Doigny was also charged with 14 other counts in connection with the investment scam, but prosecutors agreed to drop those charges in exchange for his guilty plea.

Authorities said the former Mutual of Omaha agent took $230,000 in early 1988 from Peter Ross, 102, and his wife, Esther, 83. Doigny told the Atwater couple he would invest the money in annuities, authorities said.

Instead, Doigny used pilfered Mutual of Omaha letterhead and computer software to show the Rosses how their purported investments were doing, and forged their signatures to write himself checks. He used their money to support a lavish lifestyle, authorities said.

Doigny also defrauded Roy Aldridge, 75, a friend of the Rosses, out of $394,000 that the Hollywood man had invested with him, prosecutors said.

Doigny was ordered Monday by U.S. District Court Judge James M. Ideman to pay the $595,000 in restitution to Mutual of Omaha and Transamerica, the two corporations that reimbursed the three investors, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. John Walsh.