The former owner of an Ontario Hockey League team who ran a $129.5 million (U.S.) Ponzi scheme has been sentenced by a San Francisco court to more than 21 years in prison.

The United States Department of Justice said in a statement William Wise, 64, of Cornwall, Ont., was sentenced last Wednesday to 262 months in prison after he defrauded more than 1,200 people in the past decade.

Wise, who had served two terms as a Cornwall alderman, owned what was known as the Cornwall Royals in the 1980s; the team was renamed the Newmarket Royals in 1992, after Wise moved it to the town.

In the statement Monday, the justice department said Wise pleaded guilty on Sept. 12, 2012, admitting to selling fraudulent certificates of deposit out of Napa, Calif., and Raleigh, N.C.

The certificates promised interest rates of up to 16 per cent — and sometimes more — based on overseas investments purportedly made with victims’ money. But the justice department said Wise never used the money that way.

“The funds were instead primarily used to enrich Wise and to make interest payments to earlier (certificate) purchasers,” the department said, adding Wise caused investors to suffer losses of more than $75 million.

“He spent approximately $50 million himself, purchasing, among other things, a private plane and a luxury property in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”

Wise, based out of Raleigh, N.C., was indicted by a federal grand jury on Feb. 21, 2012, with one count of conspiracy, 12 counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Wise was also charged in a separate indictment on one count of tax evasion.

Wise later pleaded guilty to all counts under a plea agreement.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Edward M. Chen also sentenced Wise to a subsequent three-year period of supervised release and scheduled a hearing for April 22 to determine restitution.

Wise will begin serving the sentence immediately.

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Wise went back to Canada in 2009 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission clamped down on his scheme, though he had said he was not fleeing prosecution.

In an interview with the Star days before his surrender, Wise said he had been living under his own name in Toronto and contacted U.S. authorities immediately after they issued an arrest warrant for him in February 2012.

“When this stuff hits, you don’t know what to do,” he said. “You’re sitting there, everything’s done, everything’s gone.”