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San Francisco Man Sentenced to Seven Years for Bank Robbery Spree

U.S. Attorney’s Office September 21, 2009
  • Northern District of California (415) 436-7200

SAN FRANCISCO—James Burge was sentenced today to seven years in prison, and ordered to pay $30,941 in restitution for robbing nine San Francisco banks from November, 2007 through March, 2008, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Mr. Burge pleaded guilty on March 16, 2009 to nine counts of unarmed bank robbery. Mr. Burge admitted that beginning on November 5, 2007, and ending on March 22, 2008, he robbed nine national banks in San Francisco by approaching bank tellers with a note demanding money and threatening to shoot the tellers if they failed to comply. Mr. Burge made off with a total of $30,941 from the robberies, which the Court has ordered him to pay back both during and after his imprisonment. The Court also ordered Mr. Burge to write personal letters to each of the bank tellers involved in the robberies, apologizing for his conduct.

Mr. Burge’s accomplice in some of these robberies, Peter Juneau, pleaded guilty on August 6, 2008, pursuant to a plea agreement with the United States, and admitted to robbing 11 national banks in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington during the same five-month period. Mr. Juneau is currently serving a 63-month prison term for those robberies. Mr. Burge has been in custody since his March, 2008 arrest for the robberies.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel following a guilty plea to nine counts in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Judge Patel also sentenced the defendant to a three-year period of supervised release.

Owen Martikan is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Marina Ponomarchuk. The prosecution is the result of a six-month investigation by the FBI.

Further Information:

Case #: CR08-0830 MHP

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's Web site at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges' calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court's Web site at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by email at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.

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