<"i did="" some="" awful="" things.="" there's="" no="" doubt="" about="" that,"="" mueller="" told="" the="" judge="" during="" his="" sentencing.="" "i="" was="" fully="" committed="" to="" making="" this="" [the="" scheme]="">
Mueller pleaded guilty in November to theft, fraud and racketeering. He received the maximum sentence for his crimes.
"This is on me," he said. "I have no one else to blame but myself."
In exchange for Sean Michael Mueller's guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop one charge of theft and not seek more than 40 years in prison. In court, prosecutor Joseph Morales said the plea agreement also included restitution, though outside of court, Morales said the dollar amount has not yet been determined. Authorities say 65 people invested $71 million with the company over 10 years, but in April it had $9.5 million in assets and $45 million in liabilities. Morales said Mueller falsely claimed to have earned between $50 and $70 million on those investments.
Many of the investors Mueller stole from were in court on Monday and many were still angry.
Edward Calus met with him on top of a parking garage.
"I wish he would have jumped. How's that? Is that a terrible thing to say?"
Prosecutors say Mueller believed he could make all the money back for his investors.
"At one point in time during the interview, he described that he felt like he was on the goal line and it was the fourth quarter and he could drive the ball down 98 yards and win the game. He really believed that," Denver prosecutor Joe Morales said.
Mueller alluded to that during his statements to the court.
"I tried harder," Mueller said of his actions after losing all the money. "[I worked] 60 to 70 hours a week, trying to make this back." Prosecutors say Mueller sent fake monthly account statements to investors and provided his accountants with fake brokerage statements showing consistent returns. Instead of investing the money, prosecutors say, Mueller bought three homes, several expensive cars, exclusive country club memberships and spent money on daily expenses. He controlled Mueller Capital Management LLC, which was seized by regulators in April after Mueller revealed to an employee and in a note to investors that his funds had "lost money from the start." He then threatened to jump off a parking structure before Greenwood Village police intervened. "The confusion has finally won its battle with me, and I feel like there are no good options left," Mueller wrote in an e-mail April 22. "I always thought I could make it back, but that's not going to happen." Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph said investigators found that Mueller recruited investors through a network of car dealers that he knew. Elway entered the auto business in 1989 while a quarterback for the Denver Broncos. He sold his five dealerships to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based AutoNation Inc. in 1997 for $82.5 million in a mostly stock deal and licensed his name to the company. That arrangement ended in 2006. In court documents, Elway told the court that he and a business partner gave Mueller $15 million in March. Elway last month asked the court handling the civil portion of Mueller's case to put their claims ahead of other investors so they can collect their money first. They said Mueller agreed to hold the money in trust until they agreed on where it would be invested./>
