Ex-head of Polynesian
Cultural Center gets
4-year termWilliam H. Cravens is convicted
for an investment scam
A Seattle federal court judge sentenced a former head of the Polynesian Cultural Center yesterday to four years in prison for his part in a Ponzi scheme that authorities say defrauded more than 3,200 victims of $76 million.
William H. Cravens was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution, which is expected to be determined in three to four months, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Blackstone in Seattle.
Cravens pleaded guilty in 2002 to one count of mail fraud and one count of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, charges that could have carried a 10-year sentence.
"He cooperated," Blackstone said. "He pleaded guilty. He accepted responsibility."
Cravens is one of six people who either entered guilty pleas or were convicted in connection with the investment scheme.
According to trial evidence, Cravens and the others promised investors in Canada and the United States returns as high as 120 percent from 1997 to 2000 if investors joined three investment funds: Vista International, Oakleaf International and Rosewood International.
Prosecutors say the result was a Ponzi scheme, in which the defendants would take money from new investors and use it to pay off earlier investors.
According to an indictment, Cravens established a shell corporation in American Samoa for his role in the scheme.
The institution was issued a business license but never chartered as a bank. Investors were led to believe the corporation was a real bank because Cravens directed them to send funds to an ANZ bank account.
More than $25 million in investor funds from the group's scheme were transferred to Samoan bank accounts, according to the indictment.
Blackstone said the government has recovered more than $41 million of victims' money, most of which was stashed in Samoan banks.
Cravens, a father of 16, was arrested in connection with the scheme at his La Jolla, Calif., home in 2001. In return for his guilty plea, other charges against him were dropped.
Cravens headed the Polynesian Cultural Center from 1975 to 1983. He also served as a chairman of the Development Bank of American Samoa and as a Cabinet member of American Samoa's territorial legislature.
In addition to pleading guilty, Cravens testified against two of the case's defendants: John Zidar, of Gardnerville, Nev., who was sentenced to 30 years in prison; and Steven Moreland, of Tyler, Texas, sentenced to 24 years. Both cases are on appeal.