Financial Consultant Gets 5 Years in Theft of Nearly $2 Million

A Newbury Park financial consultant who embezzled nearly $2 million from seven clients was sentenced Friday to five years in prison.

“When you steal close to $2 million . . . that kind of behavior is not probation material,” Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch said as he sentenced Harry Allan Saunders, 45.

Saunders, owner of Allan Saunders Financial Services, managed to pay back some of the stolen money, but investors still lost about $1.3 million, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles R. Roberts Sr. said. He asked for the maximum sentence of eight years.

Saunders’ attorney, Russell J. Nadel, said his client could make more restitution if he were sentenced to a year in the county’s work furlough program. That would allow Saunders to continue working as a tax preparer while spending nights in county custody.

“I don’t expect full recovery, but 25% is better than 5%,” Nadel told the judge. To deny the victims a chance of restitution would be punishing them as well as Saunders, he said.

Storch refused.

“I’m not a collection agency,” he said, adding that it is unrealistic to think that Saunders, as a convicted felon, will ever make enough money to pay back the victims.

“Work furlough is wonderful for those who deserve work furlough,” the judge said. “It would make a mockery of the system to tell people you can steal $2 million and then spend eight months sleeping away from home.”

Two of Saunders’ victims told the judge that they wanted him sent to prison. “He has lied, cheated and stolen from me a number of times,” one woman said. “He has never accepted responsibility for shattering our lives.”

Storch said the five-year term recognizes the fact that Saunders turned himself in, pleaded guilty to seven counts of felony grand theft, and made some restitution to his victims. Under Department of Corrections rules, Saunders could be paroled in about 2 1/2 years.

Roberts said later that Saunders went to authorities last Oct. 10 only after one of his victims, who had invested $491,000 in Saunders’ bogus tax shelters, demanded her money back. “He couldn’t come up with it,” Roberts said.

Saunders embezzled the money over a 10-year period and used it to create “a comfortable if not lavish lifestyle” for himself and his family, according to a probation officer’s report.

A Simi Valley resident, Saunders belonged to a country club, owned three vehicles, paid alimony and put his daughter through a private college, all of which was “financed tax-free by the victims’ investments,” according to the report.

Roberts said Saunders found his victims through his tax business and told them they could save money by investing in his tax shelters. Now some of the victims are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, he said.

A 75-year-old widow said Saunders took advantage of the savings-and-loan crisis to persuade her to withdraw $25,000 from her savings and give it to him. She lost two-thirds of her investment, she said.

Nadel said his client hadn’t expected to be sent to prison and asked Storch for a three-week delay so Saunders could get his affairs in order. Roberts objected, saying Saunders had had more than three months since pleading guilty to tie up loose ends.

Storch granted the request. Saunders remains free on $5,000 bail.