Dotcom con man is sent down
Duped investors with claim of wireless breakthrough
A dotcom con man who cheated investors out of $3.7m (£2.3m) has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Steven Ristau was also ordered to pay more than $6.7m (£4.3) in fines and restitution.
The 44-year-old founder of PacketSwitch.com showed movie clips to potential investors at his company's offices that he claimed were transmitted from a site 12 miles away using a new wireless technology.
But the clips were actually beamed from an off-the-shelf wireless local area network product hidden in the ceiling a few feet away.
Ristau also used his connections with churches in the Bay Area to recruit investors, and claimed to have big deals with the South Korean government and substantial operations in Africa and Asia.
But the money he garnered all went towards maintaining his lifestyle.
He put $550,000 (£350,500) toward a $1.8m (£1.1m) San Jose home, spent money on a family vacation to Hawaii, and paid off his child support.
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