August 23, 2004 LAWFUEL – Best for legal news, law news, law articles Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida;
Brian J. Wimpling, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal
Investigation; Michael S. Clemens, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of
Investigation; and James K. Belz, Postal Inspector in Charge, United States Postal
Inspection Service, announced today that on August 20, 2004, defendant, Thomas
Sewell, a certified public accountant, was sentenced by United States District
Court Judge James I. Cohn in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to a term of thirty-seven
(37) months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three (3) years’s supervised release,
for Sewell’s convictions for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, in violation of Title
18, United States, Code, Sections 371, 1341, and 1346, and for filing false tax
returns, in violation of Title 26, United States Code, Section 7206(1). Sewell, who
previously pleaded guilty to the referenced charges, was ordered to pay restitution
in excess of $7 million to the victims.
As alleged in the Information, Sewell was charged in connection with his
participation in an investment fraud scheme, as a result of which investors lost
over $7 million. The Information alleged that Myles Farrington formed an offshore
corporation in 1991 called Landmark Investment Trust (“Landmark”) from which he
offered “investment units” at $40,000 each. Farrington represented to investors
that the fund would be expertly managed and invest in mutual funds and other safe
investments. Approximately one hundred (100) investors from South Florida,
including the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, a church group, some
small businesses, and elderly and retired persons, invested approximately $9.5
million in the fund. Over the years, Landmark provided the investors with
quarterly statements that purported to showed that their investments were doing
well. As alleged in the Information, however, these statements were fictitious,
and Farrington was using the victims’ investments for his personal benefit and for
speculative investments.
Sewell associated himself with the scheme by recruiting investors from among his
accounting practice clientele. Sewell falsely advised his clients that their
investments would be safe and that he was personally monitoring the funds.
Significantly, Sewell failed to advise his clients that he was receiving
commissions from Farrington on the investments that he brought in. Moreover,
Sewell failed to disclose on his 1997 and 1998 federal income tax returns that he
had received additional income of more than $140,000 from his participation in the
scheme.
Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service,
Criminal Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States
Postal Inspection Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorney Roger H. Stefin.
