Man gets prison term in car-investment scam

The owner of a Salt Lake vehicle sales and leasing business has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for bilking investors out of millions.

Dennis T. Wynn, 52, appeared in U.S. District Court for sentencing.

Wynn told the court he feels bad for the suffering he has caused people and asked the court to spare him prison time to allow him to continue to work and pay back his victims.

Wynn was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of mail and securities fraud, stemming from a scheme in which he bilked at least 185 investors out of more than $15 million. In November, Wynn pleaded guilty to charges as part of a plea deal struck with prosecutors.

According to the indictment, Wynn approached people from Arizona, California and Idaho to invest in his Utah-based Wynn Company, which leased and sold used vehicles to high-credit-risk customers.

The indictment says Wynn employed investor recruiters and held seminars to get people to sign on. Wynn allegedly told investors their investments would be monitored in a third-party escrow account and would be secured by property valued at 150 percent of the investment. Prosecutors say those claims were untrue and that those charged with holding the investment funds were not bonded escrow agents.

U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball also ordered Wynn to pay an estimated $15.2 million in restitution.