Mark Yaffe is a great guy, 21 witnesses said in federal court Friday.

Yaffe, a once-wealthy gold coin dealer, raised money for autistic children and assisted living homes. He mentored homeless teenagers, even taking them into his home for months so they could get on their feet and apply themselves in school with newfound diligence.

But good deeds only go so far when you plead guilty to defrauding a bank of more than $3 million.

"You truly have been a wonderful person and an asset to this community," said U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, just before she sentenced Yaffe to 20 months in federal prison.

Honeywell did give Yaffe credit for his history of good works, reducing his sentence from the range of 37-46 months recommended in a pre-sentencing report. The judge also agreed, at the defendant's request, to recommend that the sentence be served at a federal prison in Pensacola.

But the judge said it would not be right to grant Yaffe's request that he serve one year of house arrest followed by three years of probation.

"It was a serious offense and it involved a significant amount of money - over $3 million," Honeywell said.

In addition to the prison time, Yaffe, 55, has to pay restitution of $3,049,581 to Sovereign Bank. That's the amount he is accused of removing from the accounts of National Gold Exchange, a north Tampa company he owned with his brother Alan.

The money was transferred to third parties, court document say, at the same time the company filed for bankruptcy in July 2009. Sovereign Bank was NGE's largest creditor and had seized the company's assets after an audit showed several problems, including missing coins and faulty accounting.

Several witnesses testified to Yaffe's professional reputation as national expert on gold and silver coins. Bill Calderazzo, a retired coin dealer who has known Yaffe since the early 1980s, said he ranked the defendant in the top 10 gold coin dealers in the country.

"He has a knowledge of rare coins you rarely see in anybody," Calderazzo said.

Phoenix Gold, Yaffe's latest company, is a powerful player in the rare coin industry, though only six employees work there, Calderazzo said. Yaffe buys all the coins and sells two thirds of them.

Lee Sanders, who handles the gold department at Heritage Galleries in Dallas, said the company would hire Yaffe if he was available and pay him between $250,000 and $500,000 a year.

Before the bankruptcy, Yaffe had built National Gold Exchanges into one of America's leading gold coin dealers. He and his wife, Christel Yaffe, bought a mansion in the exclusive Avila neighborhood. Yaffe held galas at his home to benefit St. Joseph's Hospital and Hillsborough Community College, witnesses said.

Yaffe is to report to prison on Jan. 8.

To read the complete article, see:
Coin dealer a 'wonderful person,' but still headed to prison for fraud (www.tbo.com/news/politics/once-wealthy-coin-dealer-sentenced-for-fraud-20151204/)

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
BANKRUPT COIN DEALER NATIONAL GOLD EXCHANGE SHUTS DOWN (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n31a30.html)