His gang ripped off senior citizens for $2 million. This Parkland man just got prison time
A Parkland criminal became the last of his gang to be sentenced for a multistate fraud scheme that hit senior citizens for $2 million.
Thomas White, 60, got 14 years in federal prison on Wednesday after his December conviction on three counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He’s also ordered to pay restitution of $1,936,400.
“As a result of the fraudulent scheme, some of the senior citizens are now living on food stamps, lost their homes, or were forced to take on odd jobs for income,” the Justice Department said.
White is appealing the conviction and sentence. The single father of two teenagers fought long odds at trial between federal prosecutors’ high conviction rate and four cronies pleading guilty in the scheme.
Delray Beach’s John Reech will be in prison until June 2022 and Boca Raton’s Joseph Genzone will be in until January 2022 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. Aventura resident Daniel Touizer is in until August 2021 for a related scheme. Sunny Isles Beach’s Saul Suster now lives in Miami’s federal prison until October 2020 for working a phone room under Touizer.
White incorporated First Call Ventures in 2011, according to Sunbiz.org. As described in court documents including the others’ admission of facts, he hired Reech and Genzone to work a phone room selling First Call shares. They cold-called senior citizens, even coercing some to raid their IRA accounts.
To do the convincing, they used two statements that sound wonderful, but should be red flags for any potential investor (especially when coming from a cold-call salesman): FCV was a “safe investment” and “you won’t lose money;” and “Investors would receive a guaranteed return on investment.”
Reech’s admission of facts says they used 80 percent of investor money to pay themselves and co-conspirators.” The FBI and Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation busted the group.
“Bank records also demonstrated that over the course of the fraud scheme, White withdrew over $130,000 in investor proceeds at the Seminole Coconut Creek casino,” the Justice Department said. “White and his partners siphoned all profits and victim money to their own personal accounts, declared a $1.8 million “loss,” and shuttered the business.
This story was originally published March 3, 2019 at 9:57 AM.
