A Venezuelan hedge fund manager has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for running a massive Connecticut-based investment fraud scheme that involved hundreds of millions of dollars.
Francisco Illarramendi expressed remorse during his sentencing Thursday in federal court in Bridgeport. He pleaded guilty to several fraud and conspiracy charges four years ago in what federal prosecutors have called their biggest white-collar criminal case ever in Connecticut.
Illarramendi was accused of reaping $20 million for himself in a massive Ponzi scheme that exposed mostly foreign investors to more than $200 million in losses, much of it from Venezuela's state oil company.
Authorities said much of the money has been recovered, but it's still unclear exactly how much money investors lost.
