Six Convicted in Boiler-Room Scam Get 1 to 6 Years : Courts: The Orange County case was one of the biggest prosecutions in a crackdown called Operation Disconnect. The victims lost millions of dollars.

Six Orange County men convicted of defrauding more than 1,500 mostly elderly people around the country of millions of dollars were sentenced Friday to one to six years in federal prison.

In sentencing the men, who operated one of the largest boiler-room scams federal authorities have shut down, U.S. District Court Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler described the vulnerability of the victims who lost an estimated $15 million.

“They succumbed to those pitches because they were easily confused and lonely and otherwise susceptible,” Stotler said.

The case was one of the largest prosecutions so far in Operation Disconnect, a federal crackdown on boiler rooms that sell bogus investments or goods costing far more than their value. The FBI raided the companies in March, 1993. Last year, the FBI made 240 arrests involving boiler-room scams in 13 states, including California.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas Brown said the telemarketing ring used dozens of telemarketers at four companies in Orange County and Texas over four years. The telemarketers got people to part with hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, for relatively cheap home safety products using a range of tactics including abusive, intimidating language.

Often victims were told they had won expensive prizes and that in order to collect a prize, they had to buy the products, such as bacterial spray, an emergency kit or flame retardant spray.

The six men were found guilty last November of multiple fraud and conspiracy charges after a 5 1/2-month trial.

On Friday, the courtroom was filled with their relatives and friends. Several in the audience wept.

Some of the defense attorneys told Stotler before sentencing that their clients had been unaware the businesses were perpetrating fraud. Attorneys pointed out that the companies refunded about $450,000 to clients who demanded their money back, which was evidence that their clients wanted to run a legitimate business, they said.

Attorneys also disputed the allegation that the men targeted elderly victims.

“Despite the jury’s verdict, it was (my client’s) intention to run a clean operation,” said Deputy Federal Public Defender Joan Freeman, who represented Paul C. Cooper, one of the owners of the companies.

Cooper, 32, of Fountain Valley and Timothy J. Laros, 31, of Huntington Beach, who co-owned the operation with Cooper, each were sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. Fred Bakhshekooei, 41, of Laguna Hills, the companies’ controller, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in federal prison on the same counts.

Joseph R. Robles, 44, of Orange, a general manager, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years; Kam Foo, 23, of Huntington Beach, a salesman, was sentenced to just over two years, and Darrell Vartanian, 27, of Huntington Beach, also a salesman, was sentenced to just over a year. Those three were convicted of wire and mail fraud.

In asking for stiff sentences, Brown told Stotler that the case was “permeated with fraud.”

Brown said a computer that was used to notify people of winnings was rigged so that it never picked the top two prizes, that the companies compiled or bought lists of elderly people, and that they returned money only to prevent unhappy customers from going to authorities.

“For those lives this scheme has destroyed of made more difficult or damaged, I’m asking for the highest sentence,” Brown said. The defendants “have no remorse.”