Man Gets 11-Year Sentence in Investment Scam With Father

A Bell Canyon man was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Monday for running a commodities futures trading firm that defrauded investors out of more than $95 million, prosecutors said.

Zvi Leichner, 33, was also ordered to pay about $95 million in restitution to 296 victims in addition to his 135-month prison term, the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles said in a statement.

Leichner and his father, Moshe Leichner, had been held without bond since they pleaded guilty in July 2003 to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Moshe Leichner, 56, was sentenced Feb. 28 to 240 months in prison .

The Leichners admitted to obtaining more than $130 million from investors in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Canada and Israel. The Leichners told them that their money would be invested in foreign currencies; in fact, the majority of the funds went toward the Leichners’ purchase of planes, boats and houses for their personal use, prosecutors said.

“Zvi Leichner is a decent human being,” said Michael McDonnell, Zvi Leichner’s attorney. “He committed a crime. He pleaded guilty for it, and he has to do everything humanly possible to make amends for it. And he will continue to do so.”

The fraud was discovered after the National Futures Assn., which regulates commodity brokers, audited the Leichners’ Sherman Oaks-based currency trading operation, Midland Euro, in late 2001 and barred the firm from the commodities and foreign currency exchange business.