Admitted fraudster Xavier Duran bilked a Denver police officer’s widow and others out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but won’t necessarily serve prison time.
The deal prosecutors struck Tuesday with Duran – a guilty plea on one felony securities fraud count in exchange for a suspended sentence plus restitution payments – means victims like Kelly Young could recoup some of their losses.
Young lost nearly $800,000 in the death benefits and charitable contributions she collected after her husband, Det. Donnie Young, was shot to death in 2005 while working security off duty.
“It’s a double edged sword,” Young said of the plea deal. “He basically stole a lot of money. If he were to be sent to prison for 12 years, we’d never get any of the money back.”
Young said she was relieved that the case wouldn’t go to trial. Duran’s plea came just as lawyers were selecting a jury.
Eight other theft charges and charges related to organized crime were dropped in the deal.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Joe Morales agreed to a sentence that would keep Duran out of prison as long as he complies with strict probation and keeps up with restitution payments. The felony will remain on his record.
Morales said he’s asked for an immediate $100,000 payment to Young.
“It was enough that I could justify taking a chance and giving him a break,” Morales said. “That’s what you have to do sometimes.” Duran solicited investors, including another police officer’s widow and recent divorcee, to invest in a company that purported to buy, fix up and rent homes.
But later investors’ money was used to pay off debts to earlier investors in a classic Ponzi scheme, Morales said.
Morales said that at trial, he would have been limited in the information he could have presented about Young’s husband and was concerned jurors may have seen Duran as a housing businessman stymied by a down economy.
“You never know what a jury is going to do,” Morales said. “I had to do the best I could.”
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com.
