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Jeweler in fraud case gets up to 69 years in prison
A judge in Erie, Pa. sentenced Paul Blarr, the jeweler charged with selling fake diamonds and plated gold as karat gold to customers for years, to 23 to 69 years behind bars Monday, The Buffalo News reports.
Buffalo, N.Y.--A judge in Erie, Pa. sentenced Paul Blarr, the jeweler charged with selling fake diamonds and plated gold as karat gold to customers for years, to 23 to 69 years behind bars Monday, The Buffalo News reports.
Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III told the newspaper that as far as he is aware, this was the longest sentence ever imposed in Erie County for a white-collar crime. It is a sentence normally imposed “in a murder case, rape case or the most violent of felonies,” he said.
The minimum the 48-year-old Blarr could serve is 19 years, which means he won’t be out of prison until he’s at least about 67 years old. In addition, he was ordered to pay more than $900,000 in restitution, according to the report.
Blarr owned the Amherst Diamond Exchange in Williamsville, N.Y. and, at one time, the R.S.N.P. Diamond Exchange.
An investigation uncovered that between January 1998 and March 2014, a period of 16 years, Blarr was selling diamond simulants as real diamonds and plated gold as karat gold to hundreds of customers, and accepted hundreds of items on consignment from customers that he never sold.
In October, Blarr pleaded guilty to defrauding 128 victims; combined with an earlier plea, that brought the victim total in the case to 217.
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