Source: The Canadian Press

Ontario’s top court has upheld a fraud conviction against a man who bilked investors out of more than $40 million.

While Mark Eizenga’s conviction stands, the court did agree to lower the amount he has to pay his victims — from more than $35 million down to $20 million.

The Ontario Court of Appeal says the lower amount reflects Eizenga’s criminal responsibility in a “massive fraud that involved a significant breach of trust.”

Some 800 investors — many from southwestern Ontario — lost their life savings in the scam.

Following an investigation that began in 1998, Eizenga and James Sylvester were charged in 2003.

Sylvester committed suicide in 2005, just days before a preliminary hearing.

Eizenga pleaded guilty, but later told a judge at his sentencing hearing he didn’t believe he was guilty.

The judge sentenced him to eight years in prison and ordered him to pay $35.6 million in restitution.

In upholding the conviction Wednesday the Appeal Court found that Eizenga’s guilty plea was “voluntary, unequivocal and informed.”

Still, it found that the restitution order was “excessive.”

The Appeal Court added the $20 million better “reflects both the funds that Eizenga transferred offshore, whose disposition is unaccounted for, and amounts that Eizenga admits to taking as ‘income.’”