A West Vancouver man has been sentenced to nine years in U.S. federal prison for a five-year telemarketing scam that victimized more than 4,500 elderly Americans.

John Raymond Bezeredi, 49, was handed 109 months behind bars Thursday for a scheme described as "cold, calculating, callous behavior that destroyed people's lives."

Bezeredi pitched European prize bonds to seniors with promises that their money would be pooled and used to purchase lottery tickets. The five-year scheme, which lasted until Oct. 2005, was organized around several fraudulent Vancouver-based bond companies.

United States District Judge Gary A. Feess also ordered Bezeredi to pay $4.6 million in restitution to his victims.

At the sentencing hearing Thursday, Judge Feess also said most of his victims were elderly at the time of the offence and didn't live long enough to see justice done in the case.

Bezeredi was first charged in 2006. He was extradited from Canada to the U.S. in August 2009 after a grand jury indictment, and has remained in custody ever since.

He pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud last year in connection to one victim in Glendale, California.

According to a statement of facts read in court, Bezeredi's telemarketers solicited money from seniors with false promises; such as the victim had won a large sum of money or that they had a very good chance of winning money through a mass lottery ticket purchase.

"The telemarketers told victims that their money would buy a ‘bond' and that their investments were guaranteed, meaning that they could obtain refunds of their initial investments after a short period of time," the statement of claim reads.

Bezeredi admitted in 2009 that the money was never used to benefit the victims and none of the seniors ever received substantial monetary payment. Some received small amounts said to be dividends or winnings, but most only received more solicitations to send in more money.

The case against Bezeredi was investigated jointly by the RCMP Project Emptor Task Force in British Columbia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Trade Commission.