Businessman Jeffrey Gardner came to court Wednesday claiming that he and his investors were simply victims of the Great Recession. His business partner, former Viking Stu Voigt, argues that concussions suffered during his football career may have impaired his thinking.
The two face sentencing in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that earned them convictions earlier this year, and on Wednesday one of those arguments fell flat. U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz sentenced Gardner to 90 months in federal prison. Voigt faces sentencing on Thursday.
A jury found Gardner and Voigt guilty in February in a scheme that used money invested in Gardner's Hennessey Financial LLC to pay off earlier investors and other debts instead of financing real estate projects, as promised. Gardner, the jury found, also courted new investors while falsely portraying his businesses as healthy when he knew them to be failing.
"Mr. Gardner was a victim of the Great Recession," Schiltz said. "His investors were a victim of Mr. Gardner."
Gardner's sentence came after a long, emotional hearing that included statements from about a dozen supporters — family members and friends, many of whom also lost money in Gardner's companies — and from victims including longtime pro wrestling announcer Kenneth Resnick, who said he and his mother lost everything.
"They had no problem taking our life savings," said Resnick, who described Voigt as his closest friend for more than 30 years. "Just imagine having that kind of disdain for people."
Voigt, 68, will be sentenced on one count of bank fraud. He was convicted of defrauding a Bloomington bank while serving as its chairman by failing to disclose debts Gardner owed him when Gardner applied for a line of credit.
By the end of the nearly four-hour hearing, a pile of crumpled tissues had massed on the table in front of Gardner as he spoke and listened to the testimony.
