Real estate investor sent to prison for bilking investors

CLEVELAND - A Cleveland area real estate investor was sentenced to 10 years in prison for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activicty involving a massive real estate scheme.

Joanne Schneider, 67, bilked hundreds of investors out of $8 million. Prosecutors said the money was used to fund her real estate development projects.

Schneider originally pleaded guilty to 13 felony charges in March 2009. She faced a possible maximum sentence of 119 years in prison, but was sentenced to just three years.

The Ohio Court of Appeals reversed the original sentence and remanded her to be resentenced.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold imposed the new, 10-year sentence Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Schneider's scheme began to unravel when the Ohio Division of Securities received a complaint from a family member of an investor in May 2003.

The complaintant was suspicious that his mother was receiving a 16 to 20 percent interest on her investment.

In May 2004, the division issued a cease and desist order against Scheider for selling unregistered promissory notes.