One Of Florida’s Biggest Ponzi Schemes – eCrimeBytes Nibble #35

Michael DaCorta was behind a FL Ponzi scheme tricking 700 victims into giving him $80 million dollars to invest.

It looks like this was a traditional Ponzi scheme where earlier “investors” in his foreign currency trading company named Oasis International Group were paid returns from later “investors”.

Meanwhile, OIG was actually losing millions of dollars a month in foreign currency trading.

One particularly sad example of DaCorta’s fraud involved taking the $100,000 a soldier received from the government for suffering an IED explosion.

Patti Katter told the I-Team, “I finally trusted somebody to do something with our money to help it grow.”

To understand the sacrifice behind the couple’s investment, you have to go back to 2007. Ken, a combat-wounded, disabled veteran, nearly lost his life in a roadside bombing in the Iraq war. The $100,000 the couple gave DaCorta was the money the military paid out for Ken’s injuries.

“Finally, I was like, wow, we have a friend. He’s not going to screw us over,” said Patti.

Less than a year later, their money was gone.

“It was just depressing because you know, we had saved our money for so long,” said Ken.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/one-of-floridas-biggest-ponzi-schemes-sees-80-million-lost-700-victims-impacted

DaCorta was living in two mansions with several exotic cars. He also chartered private jets for vacations.

After being arrested and charged, DaCorta went all the way to trial.

A jury convicted DaCorta of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering in May 2022.

He is now serving a 23 year sentence in Federal prison.

Further Reading:

• https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16608572/united-states-v-dacorta/
• https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/i-team-investigates/one-of-floridas-biggest-ponzi-schemes-sees-80-million-lost-700-victims-impacted

Transcript:

Keith: [00:00:00] Hi, stick around to listen to one of Florida’s biggest Ponzi schemes on eCrimeBytes nibble number 35.

Welcome to eCrimeBytes nibble number 35. So here Michael DaCorta was behind a Florida Ponzi scheme tricking over 700 victims into giving him 80 million [00:01:00] to invest. And I say invest with air quotes. It’s, he wasn’t investing it, it was just a traditional Ponzi scheme where earlier investors, In this foreign currency trading company he owned called Oasis International Group, where paid returns from later investors, which is exactly how a Ponzi scheme works.

Meanwhile, his company OIG, was actually losing millions of dollars a month in foreign currency trading. One particularly sad example of DaCorta’s fraud involved taking a hundred thousand dollars from a soldier that he received as a settlement as part of being a of a victim of an I E D explosion on duty.

His family said to a news team, I finally trusted somebody to do something with our money to help it grow. Okay? So I was like, that’s [00:02:00] pretty interesting. I started reading more into the news article and they say, To understand the sacrifice behind the couple’s investment, you have to go back to 2007. Ken, a combat wounded, disabled veteran nearly lost his life to a roadside bombing in an Iraq war.

The a hundred thousand dollars the couple gave DaCorta was the money the military paid out for Ken’s injuries. Finally, I was like, wow, we have a friend. He’s not gonna screw us over. Less than a year their money was gone. It was just depressing because, he has saved our money for so long, said Ken.

So this fraudster was living in two mansions with several exotic cars. He would also charter private jets for vacations for his family. Eventually he was arrested and charged and he decided to take it to trial, and he went all the way there and the jury [00:03:00] found him guilty of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering, all in May of 2022.

So now he’s serving a 23 year sentence in federal prison. So if you like this quick eCrimeBytes nibble, I’m pretty sure you’re gonna like our eCrimeBytes full-length episodes where we go through a case like this and we spend about 30 to 60 minutes on it. And we talk about the criminals, the method behind the crime, the actual crime, how they get caught what it’s like for them going through court, are they found guilty, sentenced, and so forth.

And it’s basically the same thing as this. We just go into a little deeper. And we are able to crack a few jokes here and there when the funny situations arise. So if you like these short updates that you’re watching right now, I’m pretty sure you’re getting along those, like those longer episodes as well.

And I hope to see you over there sometime soon. Thanks. Bye.[00:04:00]