People v. Chapman CA2/7

INTRODUCTION

From 2003 to 2011 Gregory Chapman and his associates offered securities in their company, Authotecq. Authotecq held itself out as having a successful credit card technology, and Chapman personally authored materials selling investments in the company that predicted hundreds of millions of dollars in expected revenue. Authotecq attracted $11 million in investments from individual investors. But investors did not know Authotecq sold securities in violation of state law, actually earned no revenue, never fully developed its technology, and misappropriated almost all investor funds. For his role in Authotecq, Chapman was convicted by a jury of 69 counts of securities fraud (Corp. Code, § 25401, subd. (b)), 68 counts of grand theft (Pen. Code, § 487, subd. (a)), and one count of participating in a fraudulent securities scheme (Corp. Code, § 25541).1 He was sentenced to a total of 30 years. Chapman raises 10 errors on appeal. While we reject Chapman’s challenges to his conviction, we remand for resentencing. Chapman is entitled to the benefit of newly amended sections 654 and 1170, subdivision (b), as well as a stay of his sentence on the fraudulent securities scheme count…