Irvine man sentenced for scamming seniors

HARBOR JUSTICE CENTER -- A 72-year-old man who bilked millions of

dollars from other senior citizens through an elaborate scam was

sentenced Friday to two years in state prison.

Sidney Binder of Irvine ran a Newport Center Drive business called

Diversified Tax Securities. Binder and his associates managed to convince

clients, most of whom were elderly, to invest in oil wells by providing

them tax shelters over a 5 1/2-year period.

A handful of victims gave more than $100,000 to Binder for the

investments. Unbeknownst to them, some of the wells didn’t exist while

others were active but failed to produce enough to cover the victims’

investments.

In late 1995, Binder’s business began losing thousands of dollars.

Customers began to become suspicious when Binder wouldn’t return phone

calls and couldn’t be located.

There were more than 200 victims who lost a cumulative total of $5

million.

-- Greg Risling