FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man has been given probation for running an investment scheme in northern Iowa. Winnebago County District Court records say 55-year-old Randall Finer, of Lake Mills, was sentenced last week to five years of probation and a suspended five-year prison term. He’d pleaded guilty to theft.

Prosecutors say that from 2011 to 2015, Finer solicited from customers more than $800,000 for investments. He made payments to investors from what he described as well-performing stocks when, actually, the investments were losing money. In May 2015 the Iowa Insurance Commission ordered him to pay more than $614,000 in restitution, plus interest, for offering and issuing unregistered securities.