United States v. Defendant(s) Carlton C. Sayers
Case Number 2016R00201

Dear Honorable Judge,

I am writing to you as a victim of Carlton Sayers, who stole $175,000 from my wife and me. I know that this is a “Victim Impact” statement but there is no way to convey the deep pain that continues to exist within my wife, Mary, and I. Chad Sayers, has quite literally, ripped our lives apart in ways that are difficult to explain and we will certainly never be able to recover from it.

First, the $175,000 was our retirement fund. My wife and I are past our prime in terms of obtaining an upwardly mobile and gainful employment. I am 60 and my wife is 72. We spent years saving the money Mr. Sayers stole from us and will never be able to recover from this kind of devastation.

Thankfully, Mr. Sayers was unable to steal our home, however, my wife and I finally succumbed to the financial strain and were no longer able to remain in our home of 10 years. Our goal was to use the equity we had in our home to use for our continued retirement. My wife is already retired and I was supposed to retire in a couple years. That will no longer happen.

Additionally, our credit has suffered through all this. Mary and I had an 800 plus credit rating. It has now dropped to the point that we now have to pay higher interest on money we borrow, that is, if we are able to be approved. Our credit cards were always paid off every month, but as a result of Mr. Sayers theft of our money we have had no choice but to max out our credit cards in order to survive. Household items that my wife and I would give to charity groups for those in need such as clothing, furniture, food, etc. we now have to sell to help pay bills.

These are just some of the physical impacts in our life and I assure you there are so many more that I would fill pages but it is simply too depressing.

The emotional side of this devastation has been worse than the loss of items, which we may ultimately lose everything we own. For nearly 2 years there has not been a day that goes by that I am not emotionally distraught to some degree. For twenty-three year’s I have been able to provide for my wife and I, until now. At this point, we are living day to day and praying to God to help us through the next day. We no longer trust anyone and don’t really have anyone we can turn to for the help we need to get ourselves back to where we once were.

For me, personally, I was always optimistic about our future, but that has completely changed to a feeling of despair, depression, desperation and simply a feeling of hopelessness. In the morning, I sometimes wake up in such despair that I just want to give up. I feel like I can’t take care of my wife and her needs, and certainly don’t feel like I can take care of my own. Nowadays I am also quick to anger, especially when this whole ordeal comes up in a conversation.

I remember the times when Mr. Sayers would tell us about his vacations; the many cruises he and his partner went on and the places they had seen. We were glad for him as it indicated to us that our investment was fine and we had nothing to worry about. As it turns out he was using our money to go on these luxury cruises. They told us about new cars they would buy, things they purchased for the house and Chad always had the money to pay for his mother’s care. He told us that cost $5000 a month and we admired him for taking care of his mother. This was before we found out that he was stealing investor’s money to do it.

The emotional rollercoaster we have been on has been miserable. The level of emotion for betrayal, stress, tears, anger, hopelessness, despair, desperation, panic, hate, our foolishness and stupidity in believing he was an honorable man, and many more emotions. The intensity of these emotions are simply indescribable. In my view Carlton Sayers is a master con man who has an ability to lie right to your face and not even blink. The number of lies and the level of destruction he has leveled on many good people are immeasurable. He is a man who has shown no remorse for what he has done and has no intension of paying us back which he said he would do; no heart, conscience or sad feelings for the devastation he has done to people’s lives and apparently has no fear of the law. He was warned by the FBI not to commit any further crimes but he still went ahead and did it anyway. This is a dangerous man. Though Mr. Sayers, is not considered a murderer, I can say, without reservation, that he murdered the life that my wife, Mary, and I built for the past 20 plus years. Without question, he has irrevocably changed our lives forever, for the worse.

It is my hope that he is sentenced to the maximum amount of time that the law allows. Of course, that will never be enough as his actions have sentenced us to a completely different life for the rest of our lives.

Sincerely,

Ray Pettersen