Woman Gets 9 Years for Fraud

A prominent Burbank businesswoman was sentenced Friday to nine years in state prison and ordered to pay $2 million in restitution to 36 people she defrauded in an investment scam.

Shirley Reynolds, 60, former wife of retired Burbank Fire Chief Curtis Reynolds, pleaded no contest to eight counts of grand theft and one count of forgery. She had been charged with 19 counts of grand theft and one of forgery, Deputy Dist. Atty. Sandra Flannery said.

Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler imposed the sentence.

Police said Reynolds, who operated a financial planning service for more than 10 years, duped clients and friends into investing in what appeared to be legitimate real estate investments.

But the investments were never made and the promissory notes she gave her clients were worthless, police said. Investors lost between $55,000 and $600,000 each.

Police began investigating in October 1993 when an elderly couple who thought they had invested in prime Burbank real estate through Reynolds learned that she never bought the property. Instead, she had invested their money elsewhere, without their permission.

Police said Reynolds gave most of the investors promissory notes that said their money was secured by a second trust deed on an office building she owned. But police said Reynolds had lost the building in foreclosure.