Wall Street self-described “bad boy” Ross Mandell — whose headline-grabbing trial highlighted tales of hard partying and hookers — was sentenced to 12 years in federal lockup yesterday for luring investors into pipe-dream companies and squandering the profits.
Manhattan federal Judge Paul Crotty gave Mandell until June 18 to surrender to authorities.
The 55-year-old former chief of brokerage firm Sky Capital had been rubbing elbows with Washington bigwigs, including former Rep. Dick Armey (R-Texas), before a 2006 raid on Mandell’s Wall Street offices brought him down.
Helayne Seidman
Wall Street’s Ross Mandell was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison on conspiracy and fraud charges.
In July, a Manhattan federal jury found him and his top salesman, Adam Harrington, guilty of four counts of conspiracy and fraud.
The government said Mandell cheated 250 people out of some $87 million and asked the judge to put the Long Island native in prison for 30 years.
Crotty called the request “wildly out of balance with the crimes he was convicted of” but also noted Mandell’s “many” victims in his sentencing.
Mandell, dressed in a conservative blue suit and red tie, gave an impassioned 30-minute plea to the judge, begging for leniency.
He cited his 21 years as a recovering alcoholic and his 8-year-old daughter’s upcoming role in a school-play version of “Peter Pan.”
“I am not asking, Your Honor, I’m begging you, pleading with you to look beyond the guidelines and give my daughters a chance to contribute to society,” he said.
“Let me go home so I can see my daughter” in the play, he said.
Mandell also wasted no time slamming the folks who helped put him away, including several of his former brokers and clients.
“I’m a victim of gossip, bad-mouthing and lies,” he said.
Mandell also said he will appeal the conviction.
“I plead not guilty and I maintain my position,” he told The Post before entering the courthouse. “I’m not this psychotic beast I’ve been painted out to be. I care deeply about people.”
Prosecutors said Mandell systematically cheated his investors by raising money for pipe-dream companies, including one called TicketPlanet.com, which never got off the ground but was marketed to investors as a rival to successful Priceline.com.
Mandell also abused clients’ money by spending it on strip clubs, private jets and prostitutes, the government said.
Always seeking the limelight, Mandell pitched a reality-TV show leading up to the 2011 trial based on his fight with the feds.
Mandell, who lives in Boca Raton, Fla., with his wife and two daughters, told The Post he is now writing a memoir, which he said will open with the line: “I was walking into an ambush.”
He is referring to the 2006 raid on his Wall Street offices by 45 FBI agents, which disrupted a meeting he was having with former Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD).
kwhitehouse@nypost.com
Ross Mandell, Mandell, Mandell, Wall Street, Paul Crotty, Adam Harrington, Dick Armey, investors
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