A Boca Raton man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to defrauding investors of $13 million, using the proceeds to fuel a gambling habit and fund personal expenses, including designer clothes.
Boca Raton Man Has Been Sentenced to Four Years Following Multi-Million Fraud
Identified as J.S., the man was sentenced to four years in prison in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. He’ll also serve three years of supervised release once he’s out.
J.S. operated a real estate development firm called Silverback, headquartered in Manhattan, from as early as 2018 until 2022. The firm was purportedly developing high-end residential and mixed-use properties, with J.S. raising money from investors by promising them equity in the projects and assuring them their funds would be used only for specific developments, not commingled with other money.
Prosecutors laid out how he obtained at least $9.6 million from investors and financial institutions through fraud, while also misusing $4.7 million from corporate accounts he’d been entrusted to manage. Much of that money went to cover personal and business expenses, and, in Ponzi-scheme fashion, to pay back other investors.
At least $230,000 went toward gambling debts and credit card bills, with thousands more spent on travel and designer clothing. Some of the money, he told the court, went toward his children’s school tuition.
J.S. was indicted last year on one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud, pleading guilty to the securities fraud charge on Feb. 27.
Perpetrator Vows to Turn His Life Around Pay Off What He Owes
He has since taken full responsibility for his actions, telling the judge in a letter that some of his victims were among his closest friends. He moved his family from New York to South Florida in 2022 after completing addiction treatment, and has since taken a job arranging rooftop solar installations on commercial buildings, as well as volunteering to feed homeless people through a local charity.
As part of his sentence, J.S. must forfeit more than $13 million and pay restitution to victims, though that amount has not yet been determined. “It is a small business, and my income is modest, but it is honest, and how I intend to begin repaying what I owe,” he wrote in his letter to the court.