Former Lawyer, CPA Charged With Defrauding Elderly Investors

TAMPA, FL — An indictment was handed down Friday against a former Sarasota attorney and former Bradenton accountant on charged of defrauding elderly investors.

United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announces the unsealing of the indictment at the U.S. District Court in Tampa charging Phillip Roy Wasserman, 63, of Sarasota and Kenneth Murry Rossman, 62, of Bradenton with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.

If convicted, Wasserman and Rossman each face a maximum penalty of 20 years on each of the six counts charged in the indictment. The indictment also notified the defendants that the United States is seeking a money judgment of at least $6.3 million, the amount of money the elderly residents invested in the scheme.

According to the indictment, Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, and 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 victims were persuaded to liquidate traditional investments, such as annuities, or borrow funds against existing life insurance policies to generate cash to invest in the venture. These victims were not told about surrender fees and other costs associated with the liquidations.

The indictment said Rossman prepared income tax returns for victim-investors in a manner designed to conceal negative personal tax consequences that resulted from the liquidations from both the victim-investors and the Internal Revenue Service.

It also states that Wasserman paid Rossman a percentage of the victim-investors’ money as compensation for his role in the conspiracy and used victim-investors’ money to make payments to earlier victim-investors in the FastLife venture, as well make payments to victim-investors in earlier hedge fund and real estate fund ventures.

Investigators said Wasserman also spent a significant amount of the victim-investors’ money to finance a lavish lifestyle that included luxury homes, high-end vehicles, jet skis, jewelry, entertainment, gambling, retail shopping, home improvements, personal insurance and other expenses for himself and members of his family.

The case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke.