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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A California man who pleaded guilty to money laundering and wire fraud to resolve accusations that his sports drink company bilked investors out of millions of dollars was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in federal prison Wednesday.
Randy Olshen, 52, of Newport Beach, California, said before U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball handed down the sentence that he accepts responsibility for his actions.
"I'm very sorry to all the people that I've hurt," Olshen said.
Olshen created fake records to make it seem like sales of drinks like H20 Overdrive were making much more money than they actually were over a four-year period, prosecutors said.
In 2012, for example, Olshen reported $28 million in sales when the actual sales were only $579,200, according to charging documents.
Prosecutors say more than 50 people lost a total of $7.9 million in the scheme that started when Olshen began fabricating paperwork to inflate the value of his company in 2009, while he was living in Park City, Utah.
As president of Innovative Health Solutions, he also falsely claimed he had accounts to sell the drinks designed to boost energy and stamina at several national chains, including Costco, Rite Aid, CVS and Food Lion, charging documents said.
Even as he made those claims to investors, Olshen declared bankruptcy in 2011 and used company money for personal expenses, prosecutors said.
He made a plea deal with prosecutors in May, acknowledging that he significantly over-reported his company's earnings to investors from 2009 to February 2013. Other charges were dismissed in exchange for his guilty pleas.
He was also ordered repay the victims and serve three years of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence. He is scheduled to turn himself in to prison officials in February.
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