Oxnard Man Gets 7-Year Term in $4.5-Million Scam : Crime: Officials say the investment counselor’s victims included his mother and deceased stepfather. He pleaded guilty in September.

An Oxnard investment counselor with no criminal past was sentenced to seven years in state prison after admitting that he swindled numerous investors--including his mother and deceased stepfather, officials said Tuesday.

Wayne Neal Fleischer pleaded guilty in September to multiple counts of forgery, grand theft and tax evasion in connection with a scheme that bilked customers out of more than $4.5 million over 16 months ending in 1993.

“This is one of the lengthiest state prison commitments in the history of white-collar crime prosecution in Ventura County,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Aveis said.

Fleischer, 50, was sentenced Friday in Ventura County Superior Court for encouraging his clients to establish a credit history by applying for gold or platinum credit cards. He would then get the applications approved by arranging for credit company officials to call one of his associates for references, Aveis said.

Fleischer would keep the cards and take illegal cash advances, using the money to pay off credit bills as they came due as well as other investors in unrelated scams, Aveis said.

The cash advances were processed through a Camarillo merchant who admitted his role in the scheme and assisted investigators in the case.

“He hurt a lot of people,” Aveis said of Fleischer. “He hurt far more people than a criminal accused of a single victim crime.”

John J. Haggerty, one of several partners in the 16-month scheme, was given an eight-year suspended sentence in state prison earlier this month, though he spent about one year in Ventura County Jail during the prosecution.

Despite the involvement of several accomplices, no other arrests were made in the case, Aveis said. Losses for American Express were pegged at more than $1.2 million, according to prosecutors.

Fleischer “lived the high life for quite some time,” Aveis said. “He drove an expensive foreign car and he always had the latest gadgetry and toys for his airplanes.”

Defense attorney Richard W. Hanawalt, who represented Fleischer throughout the case, was not available for comment on Tuesday.

Fleischer’s numerous victims included not only those clients who sought investment advice, but also members of his own family, prosectors said.

Aveis said Fleischer victimized his own mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, as well as his deceased stepfather. “After his death Fleischer used [the stepfather’s] credit card as part of the scam,” Aveis said.

American Express officials in Florida noticed in 1993 an unusual amount of cash advances off cards issued to Oxnard-area customers, Aveis said. The inquiry was then referred to local investigators, who uncovered the scam.

Fleischer and Haggerty were indicted by the Ventura County Grand Jury in June 1993 on multiple felony counts and they each were booked in lieu of $250,000 bail. Bail was later reduced to $100,000 each.

Months later, Aveis said, “we traced Fleischer’s bail premium to ill-gotten gains from another unrelated scam, and a judge raised his bail to $1 million.”

After Fleischer failed to show up, “we found him living in a trailer off Johnson Drive,” Aveis said. “He had been keeping in touch with his family via a ham radio.”