‘Citizen of year’ jailed for bilking investors

LOS ANGELES — A former California real estate developer once honoured as his city's citizen of the year was sentenced Thursday to the maximum 14 years in prison for bilking investors who poured millions of dollars into failed development projects. Federal Los Angeles Judge Otis Wright handed down a harsher sentence than the government had requested for Kelly Gearhart, 53, who pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and money laundering. Gearhart, who now lives in northeastern Ohio, apologized through tears Thursday to the mostly elderly people he cheated. “I'm so sorry for all the heartache I caused,” Gearhart said with a quavering voice. “I've lost everything I had. I've found material things have no value compared to the trust and friendship of those who believed in me. I valued that the most and now it's gone.”