Thereâs no reason for it to be. His crimes, however, are certainly memorable, both for their scale and cravenness. A federal judge in 2017 sentenced Burks to 14 years, 8 months in prison after a jury found him guilty of wire fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors said his crimes, committed through companies based in Lexington, amounted to one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history, raising some $939 million from nearly 1 million people. Though they didnât involve violence or bloodshed, they were devious and complex crimes. Bilking people, some of whom lost their life savings and homes, cannot be described any other way.