More than $1 million in restitution payments are being distributed to victims who each lost between $10,000 and $100,000 in an investment scam.
Forty victims --all from San Diego County -- collected their checks from the the district attorney’s office on Monday afternoon.
After filing charges against Janet, 66, and Ronald Reiswig,73, prosecutors froze the defendants' assets with the goal of obtaining restitution for the victims. Just over $1 million in restitution was obtained, representing about 56 percent of the victims' investment in the scam.
Janet Reiswig pleaded guilty to cheating investors out of about $1.8 million by selling phony certificates of deposit. She was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which includes a sentence in a separate case from Orange County.
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Widow Maryann Polk, 71 a Bonita resident was pulled into the scam.
“It was good interest, so I thought, ‘Wow’ with the Social Security and the interest off that, I could live real easy,' ” Polk said.
Ronald Reiswig pleaded guilty in the Orange County case to stealing more than $563,000 from an elderly widow and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Authorities said the Reiswig's promised interest rates slightly higher than those offered by banks and other financial institutions.
Instead of investing the money, the couple deposited it in their own bank account and spent it on their rent, bills and cars. The couple -- who had offices in Rancho Bernardo and La Jolla -- spent $800,000 in less than a year.
"They didn't buy one CD, didn't make any investments in any banks," Deputy District Attorney Anna Winn said. "All they did was spend the money.”
