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by Mike Caswell

Melissa Spooner, one of the defendants in the CMKM Diamonds Inc. case, has been sentenced to one year of home confinement. A Las Vegas judge imposed the term after Ms. Spooner said that she was unknowingly lured into the scheme by her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Turino. In addition to the probation, she must make $3.3-million in restitution. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.)

Prosecutors claimed that Ms. Spooner participated in the sale of 2.2 billion unregistered shares in a handful of companies that arose from the same conspiracy that produced CMKM. While much of the attention surrounding the case focused on CMKM, the government said that there was a conspiracy to fraudulently sell shares of several companies. The amounts involved with those companies were small when compared with CMKM, but the sales still totalled over $10-million, according to the government.

Ms. Spooner, who previously pleaded guilty, received her sentence in an appearance on Monday, Oct. 3, before Judge Jennifer Dorsey. In addition to the home confinement, Ms. Spooner received five years of probation. Terms include prohibitions from possessing weapons and from negotiating any financial contracts without the approval of a probation officer.

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