Charles Schwartz, his voice quivering with emotion, had finished asking the judge for a sentence Tuesday that would be about 5½ years less than the minimum federal sentencing guidelines recommend in his case.
The 58-year-old former owner of Allied Health Care Services Inc., a durable medical equipment corporation based in Orange, had admitted last April to cheating dozens of financial institutions out of $80 million during an eight-year medical equipment leasing Ponzi scheme.
But U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton explained she “struggle(d) to find a real justification” for giving Schwartz a shorter sentence. Then she imposed a prison term of more than 16 years, one well within the guidelines’ range.
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