Lebanese Man Gets 4 Years in U.S. for $750,000 in Scams

A Lebanese man who blamed a fraud scheme on his addiction to day trading in stocks has been sentenced to four years in prison in the United States.

Hussein Ali Mehdi asked a judge to spare him from prison, the Eugene Register-Guard of the State of Oregon (http://bit.ly/q5PvvC) reported.

"It is a disease, because nobody does what I did unless they are sick," he told federal Judge Michael Hogan in a rambling, 45-minute statement. "There is no excuse. I hope for your mercy for me and my family."

When Hogan announced the sentence minutes later, Mehdi clutched his shaved head and turned toward his wife in the courtroom gallery, a distressed look on his face.

The 48-year-old Mehdi is a native of Lebanon who has a doctorate in engineering and once collaborated on wireless technology developments.

Mehdi was accused of getting nearly $750,000 in payouts from 70 settlement funds in corporate fraud class-action suits. His lawyer says he was trying to make up for stock market losses.

In the spring, Mehdi pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud and one count of filing a false federal tax return.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Bradford said Mehdi appeared to be a "hard-working family man."

"However, this was just a clever facade," Bradford wrote in a sentencing memo. "In reality . (Mehdi) has been a cheat and a thief, a con artist, a charlatan, a fraudster. ..."

The scam involved creating and submitting bogus brokerage account statements to collect class-action settlement payments.

Mehdi's lawyer, David Moule, said the addiction was longstanding.

"As a young man, he got into stocks and became obsessive," Moule said. "He would spend 18 hours a day. He made and lost more than $1 million."

Moule said Mehdi went back to school, earned an engineering degree and worked successfully in the high-tech industry, typically earning more than $100,000 a year.

"He had a beautiful wife and children, but the sickness came back and he began day-trading again," Moule said. "This culminated in the loss of almost everything. . His house is in foreclosure."

Hogan ordered Mehdi to pay $847,698 in restitution, including a $100,000 tax bill.