Posted: Thursday, March 10, 2011 3:29 pm | Updated: 3:47 pm, Thu Mar 10, 2011.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/crime/former-burlco-man-sentenced-to-months-in-money-laundering-and/article_7e099d42-4b57-11e0-90b9-0017a4a78c22.html

Martin Gevers long history of deception and fraud has more plot twist and turns than the Hollywood movie and television projects at the center of the scam that will now cost him nearly 6 years behind bars.

“I see you as a con man par excellence,” U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson said before handing down what she called a rare sentence for her — one at the top of the federal guidelines — saying she held no optimism that the former Burlington County man would ever change his criminal ways. “You’re good at what you do.”

In addition to 71 months in federal prison on money laundering and wire fraud, Gevers, 52, was also ordered to pay more than $1.19 million in restitution to 11 victims he bilked out of the money, owing anywhere from $50,000 to  more than $300,000 to each.

Last year, Gevers, formerly of Mount Laurel and Burlington City, admitted in court that he borrowed close to $400,000 from a victim in 2009 under the guise that he was producing a film called "Eddie" that needed funding. To secure the loan, he told the victim he possessed $12.2 million in assets.

Gevers promised the victim, who was identified only as BK, an executive producer's credit on the film, but he failed to repay the loan the next month, as promised. Instead he admitted to transferring $19,500 of the money to another company to purchase two Rolex watches.

However, in court Thursday, attorneys and the judge outlined a more far-reaching scheme involved la stretched from Wrightstown to Hollywood studios.

Gevers solicited loans allegedly to fund real estate ventures and movie and television productions, providing false tax returns and false financial statements to potential investors, authorities said.

Those documents purported to show he had an adjusted gross income of more than $1.5 million and a net worth of more than $14 million. Gevers told potential investors that he could not access his assets because they were frozen by a judge handling his divorce proceedings.

Investors were told they would receive returns ranging from twenty-five to seventy percent, or more. However, Gevers did not invest the money he received. Instead, he used it for personal expenditures, including payments to credit card companies, cash withdrawals and

payments on personal loans, according to authorities.

For much more on Gevers and his scam, check back later.