Local telemarketer Russell Provenzano pleaded guilty Friday to swindling a local widow, now in her 80s, out of more than $70,000 after years of pestering her for investment money.

Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D’Amico told Provenzano, 54, of Embassy Square, Town of Tonawanda, that he will be going back to prison for up to eight years when he is sentenced April 9 on the second-degree grand larceny charge an Erie County grand jury lodged against him last summer.

Financial Crimes Prosecutor Candace K. Vogel forced Provenzano to sign a confession of judgment, legally obligating him to pay back at least $60,000 of the money.

After Provenzano was taken from court, the prosecutor said none of the money that Provenzano forced the now-84-year-old widow to take out of her bank account last April has been recovered. The victim was a longtime friend of Provenzano’s parents, and prosecutors said he considered her his godmother.

Vogel said authorities have tape recordings of telephone calls Provenzano made to the victim, “badgering her” to provide him with surefire investment funds from early 2006 until last spring.

Provenzano never invested any of the funds and authorities don’t know what he did with the money, the prosecutor said. Vogel said the elderly victim now lives in Niagara County.

He has been behind bars since August.

Provenzano spent more than two years in federal prison following his conviction for running a Kenmore telemarking company known as RJR Group in the late 1990s. In that case, American and Canadian residents were defrauded out of more than $1 million through telephoned claims that they had won big cash awards.