A conman who bilked investors out of nearly $3 million by promising them high rates of return on a phony music-kiosk investment scheme has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Rick D. Van Vleet of Fort Collins also was ordered to pay $2.99 million in restitution to 26 investors when he was sentenced Tuesday in Larimer County District Court.
The scam, which Van Vleet ran from February 2003 through June 2005, centered around what Van Vleet called “TouchStand kiosks.”
The investors paid $10,000 for each of the units. Van Vleet claimed the kiosks would allow users to play and download MP3 files and display advertisements while not in use.
Investigators said that Van Vleet solicited investments ranging from $10,000 to $400,000, and that for their investment, he claimed the investors could expect high rates of return.
During his solicitations, said investigators, Van Vleet failed to disclose that he had been previously enjoined from securities transactions in 1988.
A portion of the money given to Van Vleet was sent to Synergy Media Group for kiosk production, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. But much of the money was deposited by Van Vleet into his personal accounts.
In November 2008, Van Vleet pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said today that his office remains committed to the investigation and aggressive prosecution of white-collar crime.
“These crimes typically inflict financial devastation upon good and hard-working citizens and will not be tolerated,” said Suthers.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
