Music producer sentenced to 10 years for defrauding investors

Charles Huggins, a former music producer once married to singer Melba Moore, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for funding a lavish lifestyle by ripping off investors with a phony scheme to sell interests in West African gold and diamonds.

Huggins, 69, who once worked with performers such as Kenny G and Whitney Houston, allegedly stole more than $8 million from investors to subsidize one of his record labels and help pay for a ritzy Manhattan apartment, a Mercedes-Benz, and restaurant tabs.

Prosecutors wanted him to serve more than 20 years. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said he didn't want Huggins jailed into his 90s, but said his fraud was "sophisticated and brazen."

"You lived a very luxurious lifestyle from the money of presumably very hardworking individuals," Stein said.