Former Flower Executive Sentenced for Fraud

Former flower magnate George Heublein has been sentenced to five years in prison for cheating investors out of tens of millions of dollars in a securities fraud. U.S. District Judge Helen Frye also sentenced Heublein to three years for tax fraud, to be served concurrently. Heublein was caught last year in Florida after a nine-year international flight from authorities. He pleaded guilty to two of 21 tax and fraud charges after his Melridge flower company in Aurora, Ore., went bankrupt. The company once was reported to be the world’s leading hybridizer of lilies, and Heublein had bragged that it would become the McDonald’s of floral suppliers. But he resigned and disappeared in 1987 after directors questioned the company’s financial reports.