Robert Eugene Cheney, 79, who now lives in Las Vegas, and another man who remains charged in the scheme stole at least $2.5 million

Robert Eugene Cheney, 79, who now lives in Las Vegas, and another man who remains charged in the scheme stole at least $2.5 million from at least 10 investors in various states and Canada who believed they were investing in oil exploration ventures that Cheney claimed to control.Investors were told Cheney was Chief Soaring Eagle, a "high-ranking officials" of the "Sovereign Cherokee Nation," according to allegations spelled out in the wire fraud count that Cheney pleaded guilty to before a federal judge in Erie.Cheney claimed to head a charity named Helping All Races of People and to be a billionaire tycoon who could offer high-return investments , with profits up to 100 percent.Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini said Cheney and the man accused of being his accomplice, 53-year-old Joseph Michael Guess of Phoenix, spent most of the investments on themselves and created fake documents to make the investors think the deals were legitimate.Cheney and Guess were prosecuted in Erie because they lived in Conneaut Lake in northwestern Pennsylvania during much of the alleged scam, which prosecutors say ran from 2003 until they were indicted last year."We're are pleased that he entered a guilty plea that would cover his obligation to pay restitution to all his victims," Piccinini said.The government contends the scam cost investors $2.5 million to $5 million, a figure that must still be determined before Cheney returns to Pennsylvania for sentencing Sept. 3.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for five years and three months to six-and-a-half years in prison for Cheney, who turns 80 in August, Piccinini said.U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin accepted Cheney's guilty plea and will also sentence him.
McLaughlin has yet to determine whether Guess is mentally competent to stand trial.
Federal public defender Thomas Patton has argued in court documents that Guess has brain damage from a stroke in January 2007 and from at least one other undiagnosed stroke before that. Attorneys are due to submit written arguments on that issue Thursday.Cheney's attorney, William Jorden of Meadville, did not immediately return a call for comment.