Sanchez denied Young's request to surrender at a later date to begin his term, sending him straight back to prison. He has been there since April 27, when Sanchez ordered him held for a psychological examination.
A neuropsychologist testified last week that Young has bipolar disorder and brain damage caused by falling off his polo ponies and by motorcycle accidents that supposedly impaired his judgment. The court-ordered psychological report did not go that far.
Young's crimes were "not a matter of impaired judgment" but the handiwork of someone thoughtful and sophisticated, Sanchez said.
Like most Ponzi schemers, Young gained access to wealthy investors through a respected member of the community. In his case, that figure was W.B. Dixon Stroud Jr., whose family founded the Landhope Farms convenience-store chain in Chester County.
Young's reputation as an excellent money manager, with a Warren Buffett-like emphasis on spotting value, spread around the Unionville area, to people including George Strawbridge, a Campbell Soup Co. heir whose son had worked with Young.
William O. LaMotte, a lawyer who lost his retirement savings to Young, testified at last week's hearing that he had learned about Young "simply by talking to others on social occasions, out on the hunting fields, and other places people in our area would gather."
More than some local Ponzi schemers, Young was intent on enjoying the perks of the wealthy whose money he was stealing. A knock against him and his wife by locals was that money never bought them good taste.
Young's lavish lifestyle played out on a 57-acre farm in West Marlborough Township, where he kept his polo ponies and had a personal chef; at a bungalow in Palm Beach, Fla., a few hundred feet from Bernard Madoff's enclave; and at a beach house in Mount Desert, Maine, where the moneyed classes of Philadelphia have gone for generations to escape the summer heat.
In addition to the Sagara, a 33-foot sailboat, Young had a stable of cars, including Volvos, a BMW, a Porsche, and two Mercedes-Benzes.
Young's sentence exceeds that of Broomall Ponzi schemer Joseph S. Forte, who started serving a 15-year term in January 2010. Forte, who defrauded investors of $35 million, is in a low-security prison in Milan, Mich.
Sanchez will consider Young's request to be jailed as near as possible to his wife and two children, who live in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Contact staff writer Harold Brubaker at 215-854-4651 or hbrubaker@phillynews.com.
