Christine Speros, described by a judge and prosecutor as a consummate con artist, was sentenced Friday to 36 years in prison.
To some in Denver, she was known as Christine Chandler, a successful California interior designer who was relocating to Denver.
To others, Christine Chandler was a savvy Malibu real estate agent who had just moved to Denver after being awarded an $8 million divorce settlement.
In reality, she was a felon who had just served a prison term for forgery.
But her bright personality, her ability to talk like an interior designer and her claims of personal wealth enabled her scam thousands of dollars from banks, business associates and newfound friends in a matter of months, Denver District Judge Shelley Gilman and prosecutor Melanie Names said Friday.
“It is clear you are a very bright individual with an engaging personality,” Gilman told Speros. The judge added that Speros led a life of committing fraud and theft even while on parole.
Speros had four previous felony convictions and was found guilty on 17 counts in the latest case. Names said that the woman has repeatedly stolen from people and businesses without any sign of remorse.
Over the years, the prosecutor claimed, Speros had defrauded banks, laundered money for drug dealers and used lies about an inheritance and a divorce settlement to deceive people.
“She is a consummate liar,” Names said. “She lied to her victims about her identity and background.”
She had federal convictions for bank and tax fraud in the early 1990s. More recently, in a 1998 Jefferson County case, she swindled people out of $30,000 and a year later in Denver, she embezzled $50,000 from an oil and gas company.
She used a design business to trick bankers and business associates in her latest scam, investigators said.
Names said that Speros still owes restitution in the amount of $37,271 in the latest scheme.
Speros made no statement. But her lawyer, Michael Vallejos, maintained that Speros had a legitimate business that simply failed. It was a business that didn’t work, not a theft, he maintained.
But prosecutors said that in her fictitious design business, she leased expensive trucks and bought rugs, flower arrangements, furniture and other merchandise from a host of businesses – with most of her checks bouncing.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
