SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — From a charity golf tournament raising money for wounded veterans to a golf ball resale service. Court documents reveal it was all a scheme ran by a Scottsdale man with a long history in Arizona.
Robert F. Alexander, 59, was arrested by Scottsdale police last year after he swindled close to $400,000 from people in the North Valley. He recently pleaded guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. He will also have to pay back $377,000 to his victims.
One of them is Gregory Seybold. He and his wife moved to Scottsdale in 2019 when he retired. Within the first year they met Alexander the same way this serial schemer met the majority of his victims. Out on the greens.
"I played golf with them once or twice,” Seybold said.
He described Alexander as charming and arrogant. However, Alexander swindled Seybold into investing into a golf ball resale business. The plan was to purchase golf balls at $20 then sell them to an organization for $25. Seybold said at first he was making money so he kept "investing." Until one day Alexander wasn't taking anymore of Seybold's calls.
In total, Seybold was out $28,000.
“It made me angry," he said. "Not for a couple of days, it made me angry for a year."
Seybold is far from the only one. Court documents show dozens of victims giving up to $100,000 to Alexander. Seybold said some of them were his friends.
Records show it wasn't just this scheme Alexander was running. Alexander was caught swindling money out of people who thought he was organizing a charity golf tournament on behalf of the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit that services military veterans.
Even though Alexander is ordered to pay all the money back in restitution, Seybold isn't holding his breath that he will get it back.
"I know I won't,” he said.
That's because Alexander already owes about $9 million in restitution for a ponzi-like scheme he previously pleaded guilty to in the early 2000s. At that time he was sentenced to 8 years in prison after taking $21 million from investors. Then once he was out, the Arizona Corporation Commission said Alexander was at it again, running the golf ball resale scheme. He was ordered to pay $380,000 in restitution in that case.
“He doesn't know any other way to make money except to scam people,” Seybold said.
Seybold and other victims who spoke with 12News don't believe seven years is enough time behind bars for Alexander given his long history in Arizona. Once the serial schemer gets out again, Seybold said he has no doubt Alexander will return to his old ways.
“I just want him to go to jail for the rest of his life,” he said. “He needs to sit in there for a long time so he doesn't hurt any more families.”
After his release, Alexander will be placed on probation for a number of years.
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