Tuesday, June 24, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.
Franklyn Perry doled out gratitude and advice on how to steer clear of scam artists Monday, just before being sentenced to 15 to 75 years in prison for stealing money in a pyramid scheme.
"If it's too good to be true it probably is," Perry said to Clark County District Judge Nancy Saitta. "(Investors) should ask themselves if what they are doing would jeopardize their financial future.
"People can just remember to use Frank's B.S. test. If only my clients had used this 'be-smart test,' none of us would be in this courtroom today."
Authorities estimate that Perry, who pled to 15 counts of securities fraud, received about $40 million from about 1,174 investors worldwide by telling investors he was lending money to high-rolling gamblers who had hit their credit limits at local casinos.
For about 10 minutes Monday, Perry, 68, read a sometimes rambling statement from a legal pad, thanking various judges, attorneys, corrections officers and even the person who made an anonymous tip about his Ponzi scheme.
"I need to thank the telephone tipster who for 35 cents brought down a multimillion-dollar scam," Perry said.
Perry also congratulated former District Attorney Stewart Bell on his election to the District Court bench and offered an endorsement for Judge Michael L. Douglas.
He also asked the victims of the scam to forgive him, and said he would make every effort to repay them.
Madeleine Johnsen, a 77-year-old woman who invested $89,000 with Perry between 1988 and 1990, took the stand after Perry spoke to explain how her life had changed since losing money in the scheme.
"I now have severe heart problems, cancer and little money, but I wouldn't want to be in your shoes today," Johnsen said to Perry. "You said today that you would pay the money back, but when do I get my money back?"
Johnsen, who has lived in Las Vegas for 35 years, said she has to survive on monthly Social Security checks of $720 each.
Perry was also ordered to pay $157,000 in restitution, but that money will only go to the victims named in the counts that Perry pleaded guilty to. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped more than 500 securities fraud charges as well as a separate case in which Perry faced 48 sexual assault and child pornography counts stemming from phone calls Perry made to a teenage girl from jail.
Perry's attorney, Michael Cristalli, asked Saitta to strike any reference to the sexual assault counts in Perry's pre-sentence report, saying that it could hamper his future possibility of parole, but Saitta refused.
Johnsen's recollections of Perry contrasted sharply with the man who spoke Monday of how fairly he was treated by Metro Police and who constantly apologized to anyone involved in the scheme.
"I was in dire fear for my life," said Johnsen, who reported that Perry had threatened her life on multiple occasions. "I was afraid he was going to blow up my car.
"One time I went up to the window of his car and asked when I was going to get my money back and he told me he had a gun in the front seat and that I was harassing him. He said he could shoot me and not be held responsible."
After the sentencing, Deputy District Attorney James Sweetin explained to Johnsen that the sentence means that Perry will likely do about 20 years in prison.
"He's 68 now, so the odds are neither one of us will live to see him get out," Johnsen said.
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