Man sentenced for Internet scam

Greg Risling

SANTA ANA -- A Costa Mesa businessman who defrauded hundreds of investors

with a phony Internet gambling venture was sentenced to eight years in

federal prison Monday.

Robert Louis Syrax, 57, was convicted on several counts of money

laundering and wire and mail fraud. He was also ordered to repay about

$4.5 million to about 500 people who trusted him with their money.

“People don’t expect they are going to be told outright lies,” said

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellyn Lindsay. “With this operation, it sounded

really great, but it was all lies.”

Syrax ran two operations in Costa Mesa and Irvine that promised big

returns on a new start-up gambling promotion on the Internet. Employees

of one of Syrax’s companies, Gecko Holdings Inc., persuaded investors to

buy stock in the business although they weren’t licensed by the

Securities Exchange Commission.

Investigators believe Syrax bilked more than $5 million from his

customers, some of which he used to buy expensive jewelry and a 1999

Rolls-Royce Silver Spur.

A special countywide task force raided the businesses in March and seized

some of Syrax’s assets. Police found Syrax and his wife, 46-year-old

Sandra Diane Coronado, in Palm Coast, Fla., the following month,

reportedly ready to flee the country.

Coronado plead guilty to one count of transportation of property for

fraudulent activity. She will be sentenced Dec. 1.

Lindsay cautioned people from believing anything that sounds too good to

be true -- even if it has to do with the Internet.

“You hear about all the millions people are making on the Internet and

think you can do the same,” she said. “In this case, they made it sound

better than is actually was. You have to exercise extreme caution and

check everything out before investing your money.”