Under federal sentencing guidelines, Carton faced between six and seven years in prison. In asking the judge to sentence him within that range, prosecutors said his arguments that he gave to charities, had a gambling problem and suffered as a result of childhood trauma ignore the fact that he "perpetrated a deliberate, extended and serious fraud."
"Carton’s fraud was not the result of an isolated loss of impulse control or a one-time stumble when faced with purported ’crushing gambling debts,’" prosecutors said in a memo. "Nor was it an arms-length fraud against anonymous or faceless counter-parties. Instead, over a period of months, Carton repeatedly met with his victims, communicated with them and lied to them."
Carton’s lawyer Derrelle Janey told the judge that Carton has a “severe gambling addiction” that stemmed from the trauma of a childhood rape and he sought treatment soon after he was arrested.
“Just because there is an outward appearance of success, in terms of money or property, does not mean that prior trauma would not lead them to commit wrongful acts,” Janey said. “Some people can not overcome that level of trauma and Mr. Carton could not and did not.”
In an earlier memo to the judge, Carton’s lawyers said he has been devastated personally, professionally, financially and reputationally.
“His family has been uprooted and tarnished beyond repair," they wrote.
“I had it all, I had everything a person could ever want in life,” Carton said in a letter to McMahon before sentencing. “I literally threw it all away and in doing that to myself I unfortunately hurt others as well.”
The case is U.S. v Carton, 17-cr-680, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.