A man has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for swindling investors with a fake story about a Walt Disney theme park in North Texas.
The judge also ordered Thomas W. Lucas Jr. of Plano to pay $8.4million in restitution Tuesday.
Lucas was convicted on seven counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements to the FBI in February.
US District Judge Amos L Mazzant said that he decided to sentence Lucas on the top side of the sentencing guidelines because he 'caused a lot of damage to a lot of people' and appeared to have 'no remorse whatsoever'.
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Thomas W Lucas Jr was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison on Tuesday for stealing millions from investors in a phoney Disney theme park plot. Pictured above in February, when he was convicted
Lucas was given the opportunity to make a statement in court before he was handed over to the federal marshals.
He said he was 'heartbroken and ashamed' by his actions.
In court documents, the investors said Lucas, of Plano, Texas, showed them fake and forged artist sketches, maps, site plans and other documents related to 'Frontier Disney Dallas-Fort Worth' to dupe them.
The documents show that between 2006 and 2010, Lucas convinced 280 investors to part ways with $20million to invest in land in the area - $450,000 of which he pocketed.
Another 60 or so investors bought options to invest in the land and lost all of that money, some $8million.
The investors, including former NBA center Jon Koncak, planned to flip the land to developers at a profit when the Disney announcement was made.
Numerous partnerships, joint ventures and limited liability companies were set up to begin acquiring land in the area.
In court documents, the investors said Lucas, of Plano, Texas, showed them fake and forged artist sketches, maps, site plans and other documents related to 'Frontier Disney Dallas-Fort Worth' to dupe them
Disney said it never had plans to open a theme park in Texas. Sleeping Beauty's Castle at the Disneyland resort in California pictured above
Lucas earned nearly $450,000 in sales commissions and fees, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Evidence presented in court in February showed that he spent $37,000 on a London vacation in 2007, $14,000 on a suit and shirt and $8,400 cigars and liquor.
Investors realized the Disney resort was fictional when Lucas's four-year plan for the land never came to be, though they expected the theme park to open in 2010. Lucas was indicted in 2013.
The federal jury in north Texas deliberated less than a half day in Sherman before convicting Lucas on all charges in February.
The Walt Disney Co., which has its headquarters in Burbank, California, has repeatedly denied rumors that it planned to build a theme park in north Texas.
However, prosecutors said Lucas told potential investors he had a secret source who tipped him off about the theme park.
Prosecutors said the identity of Lucas' secret source varied depending on who he spoke to — and when.
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ShareThey said he identified the person as a childhood or lifelong friend in some versions of his story.
In other accounts described the individual as a friend of a friend or someone he graduated high school with.
When the FBI questioned Lucas about the source in 2013, he gave agents the name of a dead man, named Michael Watson Sr., prosecutors said.
They said Lucas met the man, a Hurricane Katrina transplant with a drug habit who worked odd jobs before committing suicide in 2012, at a north Texas methadone rehab clinic where the two were receiving treatment.
Defense attorneys argued the investors were greedy and used Lucas as a scapegoat for their bad deals.
His father, who was the only defense witness called to testify, said his son had his own money in the deals.
In a statement, Lucas's uncle Harry 'Beau' Lucas said the land parcels his nephew sold 'are superior long-term investments'.
He said, however, that he and his family understand the investors' anger because his nephew 'manipulated relatives and associates in his own family's company'.
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