it was the moother of all cattle scams a colorado rancher has been sentenced to nearly 3 ½ years in prison for bilking investors out of nearly 5 million in a cattle ponzi scheme straight out of the wild west richard k sears 73 of pueblo admitted selling investors on the idea that he was developing a new breed of highaltitude cattle the rocky mountain romangus that prosecutors say didn’t yet exist a longtime hunting outfitter sears pleaded guilty in may to mail fraud prosecutors say he began enlisting backers in 2008 through mailings targeting people with hunting licenses sears’ proposal was to use investors’ cash to purchase angus cows he would then lease back to mate with romagnola bulls prosecutors said sears offered to handle managing the herd and to cover all costs related to its care in return investors would receive an annual payment of 10 of what they paid in and the right to either reclaim the mother cows after a certain period of time or the return of their full investment prosecutors said sears would get to keep all the calves born from the arrangement but prosecutors say sears never bought all the cattle he had promised investors he would and ceased buying new stock at all after 2011 while continuing to raise money at certain points he stopped making the annual payments or returning investors’ cash as promised blaming drought for the high cost of hay and an outbreak of venereal disease among the herd prosecutors said instead he used the money to pay off tax debts he owed and to pay back earlier investors according to court documents in all prosecutors say sears raised around 7 million from dozens of investors and misappropriated nearly 5 million sears’ attorney john richilano said his client had begun the venture with honest intentions but after being dealt a number of setbacks made some poor choices and dug himself into a hole he couldn’t get out from “he has always been interested in cattle and didn’t do this to enrich himself” richilano said “he is very remorseful and takes full responsibility” prosecutors described it as a complex fraud that took thousands of hours of investigation to unravel “creative fraudsters may go to great lengths to hide their crimes but we are going to uncover them” said cole finegan  us attorney for the district of colorado in addition to 41 months in federal prison sears agreed to pay 497 million in restitution