SANTA ANA, Calif. – The California man who stole $7 million of charity money through a church scam in Costa Mesa has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Associated Press reported. Timothy James Lyons of Huntington Beach, 35, smiled and said goodbye to relatives as he was escorted from the courtroom after the sentencing,
Superior Court Judge David Carter refused to let Lyons out of jail as he awaits prison assignment.
"I consider him a danger to the community, quite frankly," the judge said.
A federal jury found Lyons and childhood friend Gabriel Bernardo Sanchez, 37, guilty of 33 counts of mail fraud and 10 counts of money laundering.
The scam began in 1993 when Sanchez started the First Church of Life in Costa Mesa. He used the facility to register numerous phony charities that did not have tax-exempt status.
The men pocketed the contributions from hundreds of donors who thought they were giving to causes such as AIDS research and programs for families of police officers killed in the line of duty. The men hired telemarketers and used mass mailings to raise money.
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