The Region - News from Jan. 9, 1985

Joel D. Nelson, the jaunty Hollywood Hills promoter accused of bilking investors out of about $20 million, was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in federal prison. Nelson, 50, who remained a fugitive for 2 1/2 years before his arrest last June in San Antonio, had pleaded guilty four months ago to five counts of mail fraud in exchange for an agreement that 30 other counts be dropped. He was accused of bilking more than 500 people, many of them elderly couples who lost their life savings. U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall sentenced Nelson to five years in prison on each of three of the counts to which he had pleaded guilty, with the sentences to run consecutively. She sentenced him to consecutive five-year probation terms on the two remaining counts, with the condition that--to the degree that he is able--he make up to $8-million restitution to the victims of his phony insurance premium refinancing scheme.