NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — An attorney was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for cheating to borrow millions of dollars for a failed bid to buy Maxim magazine.
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff sentenced Harvey Newkirk on Thursday. Government sentencing guidelines called for Newkirk to serve 14 to 17 years in prison.
But Rakoff expressed disdain for the guidelines, saying they did not consider unique aspects of Newkirk’s December conviction.
Newkirk was convicted of wire fraud but acquitted of conspiracy and identity theft counts.
Newkirk, 39, was accused of helping Calvin Darden Jr. use his successful father’s name to convince two lenders to provide a total of $8 million. Prosecutors said the pair tried to convince a third investor to contribute $20 million.
A prosecutor said Darden used false documents and “spoofed” emails in the alleged scams. In 2005, Darden had pleaded guilty in a scam that cost investors millions of dollars and was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and ordered to repay nearly $6 million.
In 2014, Darden pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors that recommends a sentence of between 8 and 10 years in prison. He awaits sentencing.
At his plea, Darden said he sent emails containing forged documents and “made false representations about my father’s assets in order to convince others to use money towards the purchase of Maxim magazine.”
His father, Calvin Sr., is a retired UPS Inc. executive and chairman of Darden Media and serves on the boards of Target Corp., Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., and Cardinal Health Inc., according to Bloomberg News.
In a criminal complaint signed by U.S. Secret Service agent Paul B. Deal, the government accused Newkirk of using Darden’s father’s name in late 2013 to persuade financial institutions to invest in a plan to buy Maxim, a men’s lifestyle magazine noted for its photos of scantily clad female models, singers and actresses. The government said the conspiracy stretched from August 2013 through February 2014.
The agent wrote in the complaint that Darden’s father said he was never Newkirk’s client despite Newkirk’s claim to the contrary during an interview with the Secret Service in January and multiple representations made by Newkirk to various lenders as he tried to secure the magazine deal. The agent said Newkirk conceded in an interview two weeks ago that Darden’s father was not his client.
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