An Oxford man convicted of swindling several close friends and their families out of more than $1 million died two weeks before he was due to begin a federal prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer last month sentenced the man, Robert E. Lee Jr., to serve five years behind bars on five counts of wire fraud to which Lee had pleaded guilty in December.
But because Lee suffered from synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer, Judge Meyer gave Lee until May 1 to surrender to federal custody so Lee could participate in a “last-ditch” clinical medical trial.
Essentially, Lee operated a classic Ponzi scheme, in which a criminal takes money from a client and says he’s investing it, but instead steals it and uses new investors’ money to pay purported returns to old clients.
A parade of Lee’s former friends spoke at his sentencing last month, asking Judge Meyer to throw the book at Lee.
The judge himself blasted the “predatory” and “parasitic” deceptions Lee used to bilk his friends, but said he was convinced by a doctor’s letter saying Lee was eligible for a last-gasp clinical cancer treatment trial in which he couldn’t participate if jailed immediately.
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Lee died April 16 at the Smilow Cancer Center in New Haven, according to an obituary posted on the website of Seymour’s Ralph E. Hull Funeral Home.
Services for Lee were private. The obituary asks that memorial gifts in his name be sent to the Sarcoma Foundation of America, 9899 Main St., Suite 204, Damascus MD 20872.
