Man gets 5 years in investment fraud scheme

Sentenced • He was partner with former Georgia football coach who was acquitted.

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Athens, Ga. • A judge has sentenced a man accused of running an investment fraud scheme that lost millions in investor dollars to serve five years in federal prison.

Gregory Crabtree of Proctorville, Ohio, was sentenced Tuesday in Athens. Crabtree had pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge in April. The court also ordered him to pay more than $20 million in restitution.

Prosecutors said he and former University of Georgia football coach Jim Donnan ran a fraudulent investment scheme from September 2007 to December 2010 through GLC Limited, a West Virginia-based company dealing in wholesale and closeout merchandise.

Donnan stood trial in May and a jury acquitted him of all charges. His lawyers argued he was as much a victim of a fraudulent investment scheme as the rest of the investors.