Property Wars' Scott Menaged Gets Prison After Fraud Conviction

The former star of Property Wars on the Discovery Channel will spend 17 years in federal prison prison. Scott Menaged was sentenced on Tuesday after being convicted of fraud and money laundering.

Menaged will also have to pay more than $33 million back to the banks and more than 200 people that he defrauded.

In October, Menaged pleaded guilty after the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix indicted him for defrauding customers and investors in the real estate business that he ran in addition to starring on the Discovery Channel show.

Prosecutors had said that he had started out by embezzling funds before moving on to identity theft in which he took the identities of people who have died and filled out credit applications for them.

The ID theft scheme resulted in more than $2 million losses to the banks.

Menaged used the embezzled money to support his lavish lifestyle that included travel, million dollar homes, and luxury vehicles.

"Menaged engaged in a multi-year fraud scheme and brazenly stole from his victims -- their money, their identities, and ultimately their trust," says First Assistant United States Attorney Elizabeth A. Strange. "Today's lengthy sentence is a fitting punishment for his egregious crimes."

Scott Brown, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Phoenix, says that the harm Menaged caused "can never be repaired.

"The 200 plus victims can now take some small measure of satisfaction that he is now looking at 17 years in federal prison and a substantial forfeiture as repayment for his crimes."

Property Wars aired on Discovery for two seasons beginning in 2011 and featured Menaged and others bidding on foreclosed homes without being able to see the inside of the homes.

Photo courtesy Discovery Channel.