Huntington Condo Scam Mastermind Dies
Phil Benson, who was to begin serving a nearly six-year prison sentence in April for masterminding a scheme to sell fraudulently converted condominiums in Huntington Beach, died Friday in a Spokane, Wash., hospital, his attorney said.
Benson, 73, was suffering from lung cancer and had been given about six months to live. He was sentenced to prison Feb. 24 by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who had allowed him to finish a series of cancer treatments before reporting to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Ill.
Chris Ayers, Benson’s attorney, said his client died after being hospitalized for 10 days for a heart ailment.
“He indicated remorse for his actions and for the hurt that was brought to innocent people,” Ayers said.
Benson, a real estate agent, pleaded guilty last year to 24 counts of fraud for helping sell 47 apartment units as condominiums for $11.2 million, even though they were never legally converted. He also was ordered to pay $679,000 in restitution.
Former Huntington Beach Mayor Pam Julien Houchen, a real estate agent who worked with Benson, also pleaded guilty to fraud charges. She resigned in September 2004, three months before being indicted, and will be sentenced this year.
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