Venezuelan gets 14 months in Conn. fraud cover-up

A real estate manager who tried to cover up a Connecticut-based pyramid scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars from a Venezuela state pension fund has been sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Forty-one-year-old Juan Carlos Horna Napolitano is a citizen of Venezuela and Italy living in Pembroke Pines, Fla. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of hedge fund adviser Francisco Illarramendi (EE'-yah-rah-mehn-dee).

At sentencing Friday in federal court in Bridgeport, Horna was ordered to forfeit $935,000 prosecutors said Illarramendi gave him to fake documents. A co-conspirator was sentenced in December to 14 months and ordered to forfeit $315,000 he received.

Illarramendi is a Venezuelan-American financier living in New Canaan (KAY'-nuhn). He pleaded guilty last year to fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice and awaits sentencing.