A former Belmont resident was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston in connection with a decade-long Ponzi-style investment scheme in which he defrauded 15 investors of over $6 million.

John William Cranney, 77, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of roughly $5.6 million.

Cranney was convicted in May following a two-week trial on three counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of mail fraud and three counts of money laundering. Pending reporting to prison on Sept. 21, 2018, Cranney remains released on conditions including travel restricted to El Paso County, Texas.

From 2001 through 2012, Cranney solicited money from people with whom he had personal and business relationships and represented that he would invest their money in an investment fund or a retirement plan he said he managed.

However, instead of investing the money, Cranney spent his victims’ savings and retirement on his own bills and debts to fund his declining health and nutrition products distributorship. To carry out his scheme, Cranney created shell companies that he named specifically to sound like investment funds.

He also set up a sham Employee Stock Ownership Plan to convince victims to transfer their IRA and 401k retirement funds to him. Cranney’s scheme ultimately collapsed in early 2012 when he could not obtain new investment money to pay back earlier investors who were demanding the return of their funds.