Aliso Viejo Telemarketer Gets 8 Years

An Aliso Viejo telemarketer who bought two Rolls-Royces and evaded authorities for three weeks after bilking more than 500 investors of almost $5 million has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Robert Louis Syrax, 57, also was ordered Monday to repay those he defrauded through his Gecko Holdings in Costa Mesa, which he promoted as an online gaming business about to go public. Investors were promised that their shares, priced at $2, would double or triple in value in a few months, prosecutors said. Investors poured as much as $200,000 each into the company, but Gecko never went public. Instead, Syrax and his wife, Sandra Diane Coronado, 46, took $2.5 million and fled earlier this year, first to Las Vegas, then to Florida. They were found in a Florida hotel room. Along with four others, they were indicted on 26 counts each of mail fraud, wire fraud and interstate transportation of fraudulently obtained property. The couple pleaded guilty. Coronado’s sentencing is scheduled for next month.