Local News in Brief : Engineer Given 9-Year Term in Rubber Fraud
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Raoul Marvin, the Oxnard engineer convicted of selling $250,000 worth of stock in a phony rubber plantation, has been sentenced to 9 years in state prison.
Marvin, who was found guilty last month of 29 counts of grand theft and securities fraud, was sentenced Nov. 17 by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane.
Marvin claims that since 1983, he has harvested more than 16,000 acres of the rubber-producing guayule plant in Ventura and Riverside counties. He contends that he fell prey to greedy investors who used misinformation to get him arrested and muscle him out of the company.
But Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca S. Dean said none of the about two dozen investors ever saw the plantations or received any money. Bank records showed that most of the money Marvin collected was spent on items for personal use, including a new Cadillac.
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