Victoria McGee-Harris used her charm to steal more than $5.9 million from at least 50, mostly elderly, investors at her Swansea business.

U.S. District Judge David Herndon sentenced her on Friday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison on wire fraud and money laundering charges.

"To work hard for most of your life or to inherit money from a loved one and then to turn it over to a trusted person is as American as apple pie. They invest it and you can watch it grow," Herndon said. "To have that money stolen by someone who didn't deserve it and didn't earn it is as bad as it gets."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Norm Smith stated McGee-Harris used the money to buy rental properties that were placed in a trust titled DFWM for "Don't (expletive) With Me" and to finance several clothing stores, as well as for personal purchases and vacations.

Herndon rejected defense attorney Adam Fein's suggestion of a 10-year sentence. Fein pointed out that McGee-Harris' victims weren't permanently damaged financially. McGee-Harris, who did business in Swansea as a licensed insurance agent and securities broker, sold financial instruments such as annuities for MetLife, which reimbursed more than $7 million to the clients McGee-Harris defrauded.

Jean Phillip, a MetLife fraud investigator, took the stand during the 6 1/2 -hour sentencing hearing on Friday. She told Herndon that she worked for three months trying to determine how much McGee-Harris embezzled from the mostly elderly clients from 2003 to 2010.

McGee-Harris, who wore her hair pulled back with a jacket and a skirt, declined to make a statement before she was sentenced. She didn't react when Herndon pronounced sentence.

Several victims in the gallery nodded their heads in agreement with Herndon's sentence.(*16*)

Herndon allowed McGee-Harris, 58, of St. Louis, to remain free on bond until she must surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in four to six weeks. McGee-Harris must serve 85 percent of her sentence or almost 15 years before becoming eligible for supervised release.

Herndon reserved a figure on restitution until he could review all the records.

McGee-Harris would take the checks from clients, place them in her company Metro East Insurance Group's checking account, then, perhaps months later, would purchase a cashier's check and purchase the securities -- sometimes for less than the original investments.

Despite several audits from state officials and MetLife, Phillip said the embezzlement wasn't discovered until January 2010.

Smith told Herndon told McGee-Harris would ingratiate herself to her clients while he said she was stealing from them. She would visit them, socialize with them, even hug and kiss them, Smith said.

A courtroom full of McGee-Harris' victims attended Friday's hearing. Their heads nodded when Smith told the judge how she would comfort them at times of loss and tell them their finances were fine, even telling one man at his father's funeral that she would take care of dissolved his annuities so he and his brother could settle the estate.

"She was cocky. She thought she was going to get away with this," said Denise Carroll, of Shiloh. "... Shame on her for victimizing old people who trusted her."

McGee-Harris took more than $150,000 from Carroll and her family members.

Jacqueline Aycock, of Columbia, said her sister Jeannette Johnson, considered McGee-Harris a part of the family. Aycock, who now serves as her ailing sister's guardian, said McGee-Harris took more than $200,00 from her sister.

"Honey just dripped from her lips," Aycock told the judge.

The gallery applauded as Aycock left the stand.

McGee-Harris is the second metro-east investment broker who has pleaded guilty and received a lengthy sentence for multimillion dollar fraud in the last two months. In December, Belleville businessman Edward L. Moskop was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud and money laundering Wednesday after he admitted he stole more than $2.4 million from his clients.

Moskop, owner of Moskop & Associates Inc. at 2726 Frank Scott Parkway West in Belleville, acted as a securities broker for several customers making mutual fund and other investments, though he was barred from working as a securities broker in 1990 after a complaint of misusing money.

Federal prosecutors said Moskop stole more than $2.4 million from 25 victims, robbing some of their lifetime savings. He told investors that he would use the money to purchase mutual funds or certificates of deposit. Many of his clients lost their life savings.

At one point in Friday's hearing, Herndon asked McGee-Harris whether she was working and what she was doing. She told Herndon she was currently, "working in an urban elementary school with third-graders."

"You don't strike me as the role-model type," Herndon replied.

Contact reporter Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.