3 Guilty in Precious-Metals Scam : Crime: A Newport Beach man and two others were convicted of bilking hundreds of investors out of $5 million. They face heavy terms and fines.

A Newport Beach man and two others were convicted in federal court Friday in Los Angeles on charges of operating two nationwide, precious-metals schemes out of Orange County that bilked hundreds of investors out of about $5 million.

Matthew E. Lothian, 28, of Newport Beach was convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud and interstate transportation of property obtained by fraud for his role in the operation of B.N. Goldberg Associates in Laguna Hills and M.S. Sawyer & Co. in Irvine.

Lester C. Thompson, 45, of Riverside and Mark S. Ott, 24, of Sunrise, Fla., were convicted on the same charges.

Two other defendants--Merlin B. Riley, 28, of Mission Viejo and Gary J. Kummer, 30, of Laguna Hills--were acquitted.

Goldberg Associates and Sawyer & Co. were opened in the mid-1980s. Employees of the firms told investors that their money would be used to buy precious metals, when in fact it was spent on business-related costs, personal expenses and paying back earlier investors.

Lothian faces a maximum sentence of up to 121 years in prison and a fine of $5.1 million. Thompson could be sentenced to 118 years and fined $5.25 million; Ott could get 101 years in jail and $4.35 million in fines.

U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk has scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 22.

Harry Neil Goldberg, 37, of Laguna Niguel and Lawrence Scott Hartmann, 26, of Huntington Beach previously pleaded guilty to similar charges as part of an agreement with government prosecutors.