A federal judge has ordered a Florida man to spend nearly 16 years in prison and pay $16.7 million in restitution for fleecing investors in a Ponzi scheme.
Sean Healy, 39, of Weston, scammed dozens of investors in Pennsylvania. He went on to live in the lap of luxury in Florida, acquiring a $2.4 million waterfront home, a Bentley, several Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches worth more than $2.3 million and jewelry worth $1.5 million.
Meanwhile, Trevor Cook, charged criminally with mail fraud and tax evasion in a separate, $190 million Ponzi case in Minnesota, has struck a deal with prosecutors, the AP is reporting. Details about the deal are unclear, but the AP, citing comments by Bill Mauzy, Cook’s attorney, reported that Cook will plead guilty in the coming weeks.
Healy became infamous in Florida, and was described as a smaller version of former Wall Street titan Bernard Madoff and former Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein. He was charged in a 55-count indictment unsealed in Pennsylvania last year with multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice.
Initially Healy tried to sandbag prosecutors by providing “phony bank statements and phony trading records” to thwart a grand-jury probe, but the government didn’t buy it.
“When the authentic records were obtained, they revealed that Healy had simply spent the money on his extravagant lifestyle and used some of it to pay back earlier investors who he defrauded between 2003 and 2008,†prosecutors said.
Healy was sued separately by the SEC and the CFTC, which said he used investor funds to purchase gold bullion and “to lease a luxury suite at Miami’s BankAtlantic Arena.â€
For its part, the SEC said the sky was the limit for Healy.
“Rather than investing the money as he promised, Sean Healy used investor funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle for himself and his family,†the SEC said.
