RICH­MOND, Vir­ginia-A judge sen­tenced a for­mer Cos­ta Ri­can busi­ness­man and pro­fes­sion­al soc­cer team own­er to 60 years in prison Tues­day af­ter hear­ing heart-wrench­ing and of­ten tear­ful tes­ti­mo­ny from vic­tims of his $485 mil­lion in­sur­ance fraud scheme.

The sen­tence hand­ed down by US Dis­trict Judge John A Gib­ney Jr en­sures that Mi­nor Var­gas Cal­vo, 61, will spend the rest of his life in prison-the goal sought by fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors. Var­gas told the judge the 644 days he has spent in cus­tody have been enough to teach him a les­son.

"I can as­sure you I am not the mon­ster the gov­ern­ment or the wit­ness­es present here," Var­gas said in a ram­bling and un­apolo­getic state­ment. "I do not de­serve any ad­di­tion­al jail time be­cause I am com­plete­ly re­ha­bil­i­tat­ed." Var­gas, pres­i­dent of Prov­i­dent Cap­i­tal In­dem­ni­ty Ltd, was con­vict­ed in April on ten fraud and mon­ey laun­der­ing counts in a scam pros­e­cu­tors said claimed thou­sands of vic­tims world­wide.

AP