SAN DIEGO -- A La Mesa man who conned San Diego investors out of their money for years has been sentenced to eight years in state prison.

Raymond Charles "RC" Anderson, 51, learned his sentence Monday for scamming investors with his bogus inventions.

"What an incredibly good con man he was," said prosecutor Fiona Khahil.

Anderson had already agreed to plead guilty to six counts of grand theft and one count of identity theft.

He was hustling traffic safety products and claimed to have contracts with Caltrans, but that was a lie.

"What he did very well was separate victims from their hard-earned money," said Khahil.

The I-Team followed the case for three years. Anderson's victims lost nearly $700,000.

San Diegan and former heavyweight boxer Ken Norton lost $277,000 investing with Anderson. The boxer beat Mohammed Ali back in 1973, but it was Norton who got sucker-punched by Anderson.

"He might have sucker-punched me and knocked me down once or twice, but I have the power to get back up and keep pushing," Norton told the I-Team during a 2006 interview.

When the I-Team caught up with Anderson three years ago, he claimed Norton was a satisfied customer.

Anderson told the I-Team, "You know where the money went to? They knew the money was to pay off other investors who came on before."

When Anderson wanted new investors, he came up with another scam: the chance to invest in a $270 million athletic club on the Las Vegas strip. But by then, the San Diego Police Department issued a $1 million warrant for Anderson's arrest.

In January 2008, Tracey, a regular I-Team watcher, used her cell phone video to show the I-Team where she spotted the wanted Anderson outside of a Los Angeles movie theater. She contacted the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and gave them the warrant information right off KGTV's Web site, 10news.com. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department arrested Anderson right in the middle of a movie. Anderson's crime drama ended in a San Diego court.

"It is the judgment and order of the court that you shall be imprisoned in state prison for eight years," said San Diego Superior Court Judge David Danielson.