http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041015/ap_on_fe_st/polka_fraud&e=1SCRANTON, Pa. - A polka bandleader already serving time in Delaware was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison and ordered to repay $4.9 million to investors he defrauded.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Vanaskie called Jan Lewandowski's conduct "despicable" and sentenced him to five years and 11 months in prison, to be served at the same time as other related sentences.
Lewandowski, 62, mixed investors' money with his own, using funds to buy real estate and vehicles for himself, according to prosecutors. He sent investors fictitious charts and graphs depicting rising profits for his businesses, even though his financial condition was rapidly deteriorating.
A native of Poland, he entered prison in February after pleading guilty to charges of fraudulently selling more than $2 million in unsecured bonds to 89 investors, many of them elderly fans of his polka band. He is a 1995 Grammy nominee for best polka album for "Jan Lewan & His Orchestra."
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