Broker sentenced for $3.5M Ponzi scheme

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 29 (UPI) -- A Florida financial broker was sentenced to 8 1/3 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to tricking two dozen people with a $3.5 million Ponzi scheme.

Michael Joseph Dimare, 51, admitted he swindled the people, half of them older than 70, into investing in a fake asset he called "tax-free corporate bonds."

For more than four years he promised an 8 percent rate of return and created phony account statements to wrongly suggest their money was growing, court records indicated. Dimare, who met most of his clients while working legitimately as a broker for John Hancock Financial Services Inc. and ING Financial Services LLC, continued defrauding them even after being questioned by investigators, the court records indicated.

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan in Jacksonville. Fla., sentenced Dimare to 100 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release during which time Dimare would be prohibited from doing any banking or finance work, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union reported.

While a few investors got some of their money back from Dimare, others were paid back by John Hancock and ING.

Corrigan ordered Dimare to pay back $1.6 million to those two firms for the money they paid to compensate the investors -- money Dimare's lawyer said he didn't have. Dimare attorney Thomas Bell said his client was broke and lived in an empty apartment.

He said the only thing Dimare owned was the gray suit he wore in court. In fact, Bell said, Dimare gave his last bit of pocket change to a homeless person outside the courthouse.