A Port Orchard man, Charles Nolon Bush, was found guilty Thursday of 27 counts of fraud and money laundering by a U.S. District Court jury in Tacoma.

He’ll be sentenced Feb. 6, 2009 by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle and faces more than 20 years in jail and a fine of $1 million or more.

The government said Bush operated a $35 million Ponzi scheme. In January, he was successfully extradited from Poland.

Bush, 69, according to the government, operated Hulaman Management Services, Global Dominion Financial Services, and Cornerstone Institute, which promised high-yield investments and accepted more than $35 million in investor money but “in fact, investor money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle, and to pay off previous investors in the form of a Ponzi scheme,” according to a government statement.

Bush, the government said, conducted his business from a mansion on a private golf course and from a luxury suite at Safeco Field in Seattle. In July 2002, government officials said Bush, “facing the wrath of unhappy investors,” fled to France, and then to Warsaw, Poland. Bush was arrested by Polish authorities in August 2007, and the government said he fought extradition from that country.

“It can be devastating when the financial well-being of an individual falls into the wrong hands through deceit and trickery. The days are numbered for those who peddle false hopes and dreams, and prey on investors for their own personal financial benefit,” said Kenneth Hines, the IRS special agent in charge of the Pacific Northwest, in a statement.

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