BULLETIN: FLORIDA — AGAIN: Man Once Jailed For Trying To Kill Woman He’d Beaten By Stuffing Her In Car Trunk And Drowning Her In Lake Now Accused Of Ponzi Scheme; Michael Scott Segal’s Fraud Caper Allegedly Began 5 Months After Prison Release

Michael Scott Segal. Source: Florida Department of Corrections.

A Florida man started a $1.3 million fraud and Ponzi scheme in November 2008, five months after he was released from prison after serving seven years for trying to kill a woman, according to federal prosecutors and state records.

Michael Scott Segal, 50, of Miami, was charged in 2001 — when he was 40 — with attempted murder, kidnapping and aggravated battery for beating a woman, stuffing her into the trunk of car and trying to launch the car into a lake.

The woman survived because a police officer was nearby and observed Segal repeatedly trying to drive the car over a raised embankment and into the lake, according to news accounts. Segal ultimately spent seven years behind bars for his crime.

State records show that Segal was released from prison on June 1, 2008. Federal prosecutors now say he started a domestic and international fraud scheme five months later — not disclosing his felonious past to investors and referring to himself as “Scott Segal” to keep them from discovering his prison record.

The scheme involved purported inexpensive consumer goods from China, a purported land-development project in China and a purported “Venezuelan security cargo locks deal,” prosecutors said.

It operated through a Segal-controlled company known as Bright Jewel Holdings Limited Inc., and some investors were issued bad checks, prosecutors said.

Segal has been charged with 12 counts of mail and wire fraud.

Some investors appear to have started a Blog to publicize Segal’s alleged fraud before charges were filed. Supporters of Segal appear to have shown up at the Blog to defend him and his purported honesty, according to web records.

“This blog is not real,” an apparent defender wrote. “[I]f he has wrote (sic) checks for 60k or others believe me he wont (sic) be out from jail for a long time. So stop writing false things about him and get back to real life and be honest. He is a good man and a very kind person.”

Another apparent defender commented on a Blog that “writing these types of comments is counterproductive.”

Andy Bowdoin, another accused Florida Ponzi schemer with a felonious past, initially enjoyed significant support among investors and continues to have some support while awaiting his criminal trial.

Bowdoin was the head of Quincy-based AdSurfDaily. Federal prosecutors said he ripped off investors in a swindle in Alabama during the 1990s.

Read April 19, 2001 news account of Segal’s attempted-murder case.