Former D.C.-area paralegal sentenced to 30 months in ticket resale scam "I don't want to be this thing, this thing that I'm so ashamed of," Roque said. Judge T.S. Ellis III said that Roque's remorse seemed genuine, but the amount of money she stole warranted a harsh penalty. "That is a very substantial theft, causing a great deal of harm," Ellis said. Prosecutors had asked in court filings that Roque be sentenced to a prison term of at least two years and nine months. Though her scheme was not complicated, they said, it was still serious. One victim, authorities said, lost his $250,000 life savings. "This was a devastating loss for some of these people," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy D. Belevetz said. Roque, a University of Florida graduate who worked as a paralegal at various places, launched her scheme in June 2011, telling friends and acquaintances that she needed investors for a high-end sports ticket resale business, according to court filings. She told the friends and acquaintances she could buy and then resell tickets at a profit, and those who invested with her would get a percentage of that profit, court filings show. But Roque, who moved to the D.C. area in 2010, never bought any tickets, prosecutors wrote. Authorities said she gambled away most of the money she was given, incurring $400,000 in losses from 2010 to 2012. When investors came asking for their profits, prosecutors said, Roque paid them with money she got from other investors or persuaded them to roll their old investments into new ones. Taking out the payments she made, she cheated 17 people out of more than $639,000, according to court filings. She recruited one investor in September - after she had been interviewed by law enforcement, the filings show. Three people who fell prey to the scheme spoke in court Friday, telling the judge how Roque mocked them as they begged for their money back. A doctor who met Roque through a mutual friend said he and his sister together lost about $60,000. A lawyer who worked with Roque at a firm in Falls Church said she lost about $30,000 that she had hoped would become a sort of financial safety net. "She took pretty much all my savings," said Meredith Hartley, the lawyer. Geremy C. Kamens, Roque's attorney, said in court that Roque had become "disconnected from her moral compass" during the scheme and now had "an extraordinary amount of remorse for her conduct." He argued that she be sentenced to a term of 15 months, saying she was focused on paying back her victims and restoring her reputation with her family. "We'd ask the court to give her the opportunity to focus on paying what she owes," Kamens said.