Peregrine boss Wasendorf starts serving 50-year jail term

Source: Reuters

Russell Wasendorf Sr., the former chief executive of Peregrine Financial Group, has begun serving a 50-year sentence at a federal prison in Indiana for bilking $215 million from customers of the failed futures brokerage.

Wasendorf, who turned 65 on Monday, arrived on Wednesday at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was once the home of convicted former Illinois governor George Ryan, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Now known as Inmate #12191-029, Wasendorf had been locked in a county jail in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, since he confessed in July to stealing from tens of thousands of clients over a period of two decades.

A federal judge in January sentenced Wasendorf, who had tried to kill himself just before the fraud was uncovered last year, to 50 years behind bars, the maximum allowed by law.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/28/us-peregrine-wasendorf-transfer-idUSBRE91R1FB20130228

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Wasendorf tried to commit suicide before the fraud was uncovered. He has been ordered to make restitution of the $215 million according to foxbusiness.com.