Las Vegas Man Sentenced for Defrauding Granite Bay Victim

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Acting United States Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced that yesterday United States District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. sentenced AMIER SADEGHPOUR, 54, of Las Vegas, to six years in prison for defrauding a victim for more than $345,000. In addition the prison sentence, he is required to pay $345,000 to the victim and a fine of $150,000 to the government.

This case is the product of an extensive, joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Robin R. Taylor, who is prosecuting the case, SADEGHPOUR claimed his daughter had been kidnapped and was being held in Mexico. He asked the Granite Bay victim for money to secure her release. SADEGHPOUR obtained at least five checks from the victim in July 2007, which he cashed at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.

SADEGHPOUR pleaded guilty to the scheme on August 7, 2008, and admitted  that he did not have a daughter. He acknowledged that he did not use the money as represented and instead lost most of it gambling.  

“He took everything from my husband. I just want to know why?” the victim’s wife in the case testified. She said that the defendant killed her husband, not with bullets, but with his fraud.  “We befriended him and he did this to us.”

In sentencing SADEGHPOUR, Judge England said that white-collar crime causes great harm and must be punished.  He added, “I find the nature of this offense repulsive.”