Judge orders pair to repay $2.3 billion

Dublin, Ohio -- An Ohio federal judge ordered former National Century executives Donald Ayers and Randolph Speer to repay exactly $2,384,147,105.09 to investors.

Judge Algenon Marbley's multi-billion-dollar repayment order went right down to the penny in a National Century Financial Enterprises fraud case. He also sentenced former chief operations officer Ayers to 15 years in federal prison.

Ayers, 72, and Speer were convicted in March on securities fraud and money laundering charges. Speer, 57, received a 12-year sentence Wednesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.

Ayers' attorney Brian Dickerson called his client's ordered prison time, "a death sentence."

But, Marbley said "thousands suffered," while Ayers "amassed a significant financial fortune."

Earning fees for making collections on doctors' bills, National Century once claimed it was the country's largest private handler of medical accounts-receivables, the Dispatch reported.

The company, which used investors' funds to pay healthcare providers, went bankrupt in 2002, losing $2.8 billion, a collapse that caused 275 healthcare providers to go out of business, the newspaper reported.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.