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Investors were devastated by a greed-motivated, multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Calgarians Gary Sorenson and Milowe Brost, a judge said in sentencing the pair to 12 years in prison on Tuesday.“A review of the victim impact statements show the devastating loss to investors,” said Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Robert Hall of the bogus gold mining operation that ran between 1999 and 2008. It was recognized as one of the largest frauds in Canadian history.“There was an abandonment of lifestyle, some had to return to work, some were homeless, many suffered shame and embarrassment, it eroded once-happy marriages, some considered suicide.”Two men facing up to 14 years in jail after jury finds them guilty of defrauding Albertans of up to $200MHall found that Sorenson and Brost bilked investors of between $120 and $200 million in one phase of the fraud involving Syndicated Gold Depositories and $36 million in another involving Strategic Metals, initiated to support the first phase.The average lost investment among 477 investors in the second phase was $77,000, he said. (It’s unclear how much was lost in the first phase as there are no records of how much was returned in the Ponzi setup.)He cited the sheer magnitude of the fraud, the large number of investors and adverse effect on them, the length of time over which the fraud occurred and the large amount of money involved as significant aggravating factors.“These companies were set up to facilitate the fraud being carried out,” he said. “The second fraud was motivated by greed from the first fraud. Family and friends of victims were also encouraged to invest.“Nether of the accused has expressed any remorse.”Hall also gave Brost five years to be served concurrently for money laundering. He did not order restitution, saying it was unclear exactly who lost what amount, and left it to the civil courts to sort out.Leah Hennel / Calgary Herald Crown prosecutors Brian Holtby and Iwona Kuklicz had asked for the maximum 14 years allowable under the Criminal Code, but were pleased with the judge’s ruling.“The whole point in asking and trying to get jail time is to deter other people and to isolate these ones from more potential victims,” Holtby said outside court. “So, hopefully, the 12 years will deter others and for a long period of time Brost and Sorenson will be away from society and not victimizing others.“It was important for us that the judge found it was pure greed with no legitimate business purpose from Day 1. They were dishonest and they were greedy and really this dishonesty and greed hurt hundreds of people.”Kuklicz said although it wasn’t the maximum jail time, the perpetrators will not be allowed to be involved in any kind of work or volunteer position that has anything to do with other people’s money for 20 years.“The judge said you can’t just look at the offence, even though it was the worst type of offence,” said Kuklicz.“You have to look at the circumstances of the accused and the offence. You have to look at Sorenson, who is 71. Both had no criminal record at the times of these offences. Those were all of the reasons he didn’t impose 14 years, and 12 years is a good sentence.”Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press Carole Knopp of Enderby, B.C., one investor who lost $130,000 in the scam, said she does not expect to get anything back but added, “it would be a bonus.”“It is really nice to have it over. But is it over or can there be appeals?” she told reporters outside court. “I’ll get over it, given my strength, yes. But, financially, no.“Seeing them (perpetrators) in court, they look like hollow, empty people. They are sociopaths or psychopaths to not have any response.”Neither Sorenson, 71, nor Brost, 61, made any comment when given the opportunity by the judge. Brost only said, “on advice of my counsel, no.”Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press Brost’s lawyers Shamsher Kothari and Cory Wilson, who had sought a sentence of eight to 10 years, said it would have to be their client’s decision, but they would expect and appeal of both the convictions on two counts of fraud and one count of money laundering and the sentences.“There were a number of issues that arose from the trial, so I would expect both conviction and sentence would be appealed, if that is what he chooses,” Kothari said.“When it comes to the legal side of it and you talk about pure greed, there was no actual business going on. In our case, though, we know gold was being refined. It’s just a question if there was enough gold being refined.”“The whole process was exhausting for lawyers on all sides, as well as the victims, many who were here today,” Wilson said. “It was years in the making and a five-month trial.”Nearly 600 victims filed impact statements with the court and 74 indicated they wanted to read them aloud but only Knopp showed up to do so during sentencing arguments.Kuklicz had argued the two offenders’ actions cried out for an extreme denunciatory sentence. “If there was ever a case of fraud that justified the maximum sentence, this case is the one,” she told Hall.“If there is a fraud case that was more planned and more deliberate, I couldn’t find one … it’s not just the likely and actual harm to the victims, but to society.”Sorenson’s lawyer Steve Bitzer, who asked that his client serve his sentence at William Head Penitentiary in Britush Columbia, noted his client’s age and said the maximum could essentially be a life sentence for him.Court heard previously that the Investors Recovery Pool, which represents 3,130 victims who have signed papers seeking returns of their losses, are seeking up to $410 million in restitution – depending on the exchange rate, as many clients invested in U.S. dollars.Following the trial, one of the longest criminal trials in Canadian history, a jury convicted Sorenson and Brost of defrauding more than 2,000 investors.The trial, which sat for 61 days of evidence and five days of final arguments and instructions, heard that investors in three companies – Strategic Metals, Syndicated Gold Depositories and Base Metals LLC – lost their money invested in proposed gold mines based in Honduras, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Canada and the United States. read more