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A Jackson County jury on Wednesday convicted a Medford-area developer and mortgage broker on 17 counts stemming from a real estate ponzi scheme targeted at the elderly.

James C. Nistler, a former high-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the 1980s, was convicted of one count of racketeering, eight counts of securities fraud and eight counts of aggravated theft in the first degree. The jury took only one day to make the convictions.

The scheme focused on a housing development known as Tennessee Acres that Nistler was pitching to investors in Medford. He took nearly $1.2 million from nearly a dozen elderly investors to build houses in the development. He spent $400,000 of the invested money on the development and kept the rest for himself.

Nistler was unlicensed and the securities he sold to the investors were unregistered.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger described the scheme as “unconscionable.”

Sentencing for Nistler is slated for Dec. 9 at the Jackson County Circuit Courthouse in Medford.