FLORIDA – A Florida insurance agent has been sentenced to prison for defrauding elderly investors and tax evasion, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO) announced last week.
U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell has sentenced Phillip Roy Wasserman, 67, of Sarasota, to 15 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, substantive counts of wire fraud and mail fraud, and evasion of payment of income taxes.
As part of his sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $6,318,299.75, the proceeds of the criminal conduct.
A federal jury found Wasserman guilty of the fraud charges on May 15, 2023. Wasserman pleaded guilty to tax evasion on October 23, 2023.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, and his co-conspirator Kenneth Rossman, a Florida certified public accountant and licensed insurance agent, made false and fraudulent misrepresentations and concealed material information to convince elderly victim-investors to put their money into Wasserman’s new insurance venture, “FastLife.”
Some victim-investors were reportedly persuaded to liquidate traditional investments, such as annuities, and/or to borrow funds against existing life insurance policies to generate cash to invest in the venture. These victim-investors were not told about surrender fees and other costs associated with said liquidations, and Rossman prepared income tax returns for victim-investors in a manner designed to conceal negative personal tax consequences that resulted from liquidations.
Court documents further reveal that Wasserman paid Rossman a percentage of the victim-investors’ money as compensation for his role in the conspiracy. Wasserman also reportedly used victim-investors’ money to make Ponzi-style payments to earlier victim-investors in the FastLife venture, as well as to victim-investors in his earlier hedge fund and real estate fund ventures.
Wasserman is said to have spent a significant amount of the victim-investors’ money to finance a lavish lifestyle that included a luxury personal residence, a beach house on Casey Key, professional hockey season and playoff tickets, concerts and other shows, vehicles, jet skis, jewelry, including a diamond ring, personal celebrity entertainment, gambling, retail shopping, home improvements, personal insurance, and a host of other expenses for his personal benefit and the benefit of family members.
The evidence also established that Wasserman took numerous steps to evade payment of more than $900,000 in taxes and to conceal a multitude of civil judgments and other debts pending against him when he solicited victim-investors to put their money into FastLife. In addition, Wasserman took steps to conceal FastLife’s mounting business debts to various business vendors and service providers, employees and independent contractors, and victim-investors.
The evidence further showed that in response to the investigation, Wasserman created a second set of books and fabricated a compensation agreement to convince investigators that he had not made improper personal use of victim-investors’ funds. Moreover, he urged one witness to lie to investigators, attempted to dissuade several victim-investors from cooperating with law enforcement, and requested that one victim-investor make a baseless complaint against an investigator.
In a further effort to thwart the investigation, Wasserman falsely and fraudulently represented that he had an audit from a highly regarded financial services firm that would show that neither he nor FastLife had committed any wrongdoing. Evidence at trial showed that Wasserman had never engaged the firm to perform an audit and had never received any final work product from the firm.
“With false promises of riches and security, Mr. Wasserman exploited the most vulnerable in our society. Investment schemes that target the elderly are especially heinous and will not be tolerated by the justice system. IRS Criminal Investigators will leave no stone unturned to protect elderly victims and bring some justice to those who might prey upon them,” said Special Agent in Charge Brian Payne of IRS-Criminal Investigation.
“False allegations against our investigators, coverups of financial documents, or witness tampering will not deter us. Wasserman called himself the Annuity King, but his actions and crimes have earned him another name: Convicted Felon.”
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. Assistant United States Attorneys Rachelle DesVaux Bedke and Rachel K. Jones prosecuted it. Assistant Suzanne Nebesky is handling the forfeiture.
