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Former Adviser Ends Eleven-Year Jail Term

March 16, 2011

Martin Armstrong, a former financial adviser who once ran Princeton Economics International, left jail after 11 years - including 7 years for contempt.  He's under house arrest until September.  Mr. Armstrong, who was found guilty of running a $3 billion Ponzi scheme, would be allowed to go to work and be required to check in at a halfway house in the Philadelphia area, beginning September.

Mr. Armstrong spent 7 years in prison for contempt after he defied a federal judge’s order in January 2000 to turn over to the government about $15mn worth of gold bars, rare coins and antiquities - including a bust of Julius Caesar.  Normally, people held in contempt by a judge are jailed for no longer than 18 months.  Mr. Armstrong contended he did not have those assets.

Ultimately, Mr. Armstrong was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2007 after he agreed to plea guilty the year before to one count of conspiracy to hide hundreds of millions in trading losses.  After seven long years, the judge in the case finally lifted the contempt sanction so Mr. Armstrong could begin his prison term.  He received no time off his prison sentence for the time he spent in the Manhattan jail.   [NYT Dealbook, 3/15]