Media heir jailed for swindling mum, uncle A US media company heir raised in what his lawyer calls a wealthy but dysfunctional family must serve nine years in prison for stealing $US3.6 million ($A3.97 million) from his mother and disabled uncle. Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia said Michael Scripps spent the money on cars, jewellery and women, including strippers and porn stars. A defence lawyer argued on Monday that Scripps, 36, has since married and built a productive life and credited the turnaround to his estrangement from his family in 2006. "He got caught stealing their money, so they didn't want to have anything else to do with him," Davis said. Melissa Scripps had agreed to let her son's college friend in suburban Philadelphia manage $US9 million belonging to her and her brother, David. But Scripps and the Merill Lynch broker, Richard "Duke" Gleeson, then colluded to misuse the funds, prosecutors said. She testified that she had inherited $US11 million. But defence lawyer Michael Dezsi argued that her fortune was closer to $US100 million. She was giving her adult son about $US3900 a month, along with a $US250,000 trust fund and college tuition. Dezsi said she had run a chaotic house when her son was growing up and was long addicted to drugs. "My client was raised in a very chaotic, somewhat dysfunctional household," Dezsi said. "The spending in the Scripps family was just unimaginable," the lawyer said. Gleeson, 38 and a married father of four, was sentenced on Monday to a year in prison. A self-described gambling addict, he netted about $US300,000 and pleaded guilty before trial. The two men were also ordered to make joint restitution of $US3.6 million.