A six-year prison sentence has been handed down to a Mission Viejo man convicted of defrauding investors – some of them from Garden Grove – of over $350,000.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, Christopher Alan Tate, 47, pleaded guilty last week in Santa Ana’s Central Justice Center to seven felony counts of securities fraud, eight felony counts of passing bad checks and one felony count of forgery.
He was also sentenced to pay restitution and a fine of $887,944.
According to the D.A., Tate convinced at least nine victims between April 2008 and May 2010 to invest in a business with the promise of “high and quick returns.” The victims were parents and grandparents he met through the youth sports programs his children participated in.
Tate got about $350,000 from the “investors” and never paid them back or returned their investment money. When pressed he made “elaborate excuses” or gave the victims forged or bad checks that bounced.
Victims reported this to the Garden Grove Police Department, which conducted the investigation.
Before sentence was passed, six victims delivered impact statements to the court.
One said “What Chris Tate has done is left my family financially ruined.” Another called him a “pathological liar.”
