Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche denounced his mail fraud conviction as a "gross, disgusting, obscene miscarriage of justice" and said he expects to be killed in prison.
LaRouche, convicted in federal court Friday, said he felt no remorse about his conviction because he did not bilk investors of more than $30 million."Why should I?" LaRouche retorted at a news conferece after his conviction Friday in U.S. District Court. "I didn't do anything wrong."
He said it was the government's fault that the lenders, most of them elderly people, lost their money because it forced his organization into backruptcy before the loans could be repaid.
"I'm amazed, absolutely amazed," LaRouche said of the verdict shortly after the jury left the courtroom.
The jury convicted LaRouche and six associates of mail fraud in borrowing the money for his political organizations without intending to repay any of it. All were free on their own recognizance pending appeal.
The jury also convicted the 66-year-old perennial presidential candidate of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service by concealing income to avoid taxes.