Former Quogue mayor gets prison for securities fraud

George Motz, the mayor of Quogue for seven years before resigning in the fall after he pleaded guilty to securities fraud, was sentenced Wednesday to 8 years in federal prison.

Motz, 68, defrauded 240 clients of his Manhattan stock-brokerage firm for a total of $2.4 million, according to federal prosecutors Roger Burlingame and William Schaeffer.

Before he was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip, Motz told U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt that he was "so, so sorry about all of this. I don't know what else to say . . . I am sorry, sorry, sorry."

Spatt ordered Motz to receive mental health counseling in prison when he begins his sentence in June and ordered that he serve another three years of supervised release when he gets out of prison.

Motz, who pleaded guilty in October, held his head in his hands after the sentence was announced.

The judge also said he would hold a future hearing to determine how much restitution Motz owes his victims and how much to fine him. Motz was released on $1 million bail and was ordered confined to his home with an electronic bracelet monitor until he begins his prison sentence in June.

Motz's attorney, G. Robert Gage, declined any comment afterward, including whether Motz plans an appeal.

The securities fraud to which Motz pleaded guilty involved a so-called "cherry-picking" scheme at his Melhado, Flynn and Associates firm. In the scheme, Motz would assign successful trades to his firm's accounts and losing trades to customers' accounts.

In court papers, Burlingame said the scheme took advantage of "wealthy, old women . . . his most inexperienced and elderly clients."

Burlingame asked that Motz be sentenced within the suggested federal sentencing guidelines that called for between 11 years and three months to 14 years.

"The defendant should not receive special consideration because he lives in a $2 million house in Quogue rather than a housing project in Far Rockaway," the prosecutor said in court papers.

Spatt said that judges are no longer bound by the guidelines. In imposing sentence, he said he was taking into account Motz's two years in the military and his community service. Before he was Quoque's mayor, Motz had been a trustee for two years and a member of the planning board for 10 years.

Spatt said a prime motivation in sentencing Motz to a relatively lengthy term was deterrence - a warning to securities dealers not to engage in illegal conduct.

Burlingame and Schaeffer declined to comment after the sentencing.