U.S. District Judge David Ezra called Perry Jay Griggs a serial fraud artist Friday before sentencing him to seven years and three months in prison for mail and wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme involving Hawaii inmates and their families.

"This defendant has flouted the law in the most profound way," Ezra said.

Griggs was serving time in prison at Nellis Air Force Base for operating a Ponzi scheme in California when he started the Ponzi scheme involving the Hawaii inmates and their families. He owes the victims from the first Ponzi scheme more than $3 million.

He also has convictions in Washington state for running a carpet business scam, a telephone scam while under investigation for the carpet business scam and for taking $3,000 from a contractor for a carpet installation he never performed.