Another attempt by the convicted mastermind of the biggest Ponzi scheme in New Hampshire history to be released early from prison was foiled this month, this time by the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The federal court rejected Scott Farah’s request for a compassionate release to care for his ailing father. The court ruled that Farah did not prove that his siblings’ health and finances prevented them from providing that care and that he didn’t take into account the seriousness of his crime.

Farah, former owner of Financial Resources Mortgage Inc. in Meredith, has been serving a 15-year sentence in Loretto Federal Prison in Pennsylvania for his role in bilking several hundred people out of $20 million. The victims thought they had, via FRM, invested in secured property, but the funds were commingled in a single bank account, and when the company collapsed during the Great Recession, discovered that they had lost their life savings.

The New Hampshire Banking Department forced FRM into bankruptcy in 2009, but most of the money captured by the bank’s estate went into the pockets of attorneys and other professionals.

In January, Farah asked for a release, emphasizing the need to care for his ailing father. U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro denied Farah’s request, but Farah appealed that decision, saying the court didn’t give him an opportunity to prove he had “extraordinary and compelling reason,” since he was the only sibling in his family who could provide that care.

At the end of May, U.S. Attorney Scott Murray urged the court to reject Farah’s plea, saying he “perpetrated a fraud that stole millions of dollars from scores of victims.” He said the crime “ruined many lives” and that Farah should serve out his sentence as a “general deterrence message that such conduct will not be tolerated and that others should think twice before defrauding people out of their life savings.” On July 31, the court sided with Murray.

— BOB SANDERS