MIAMI, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Miami con artist Michael Scott Segal has confessed to bilking family members out of more than $800,000, court papers show.
Segal, 51, recently pleaded guilty to two federal mail and wire fraud charges, and faces up to 20 years in prison for each count when he is sentenced Feb. 29, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday. He had been charged with 12 federal fraud counts.
Segal created Bright Jewel Holdings, a sham company in which he convinced family members to invest their life savings. The exact amount -- $812,553 -- is to be surrendered along with all assets subject to forfeiture.
Channa Atebi, Segal's mother-in-law, has no sympathy for him. Her husband, Mordechai, invested $220,000 of their life savings in the company. One of Antebi's sons also invested with Segal, money which Segal spent on an extravagant lifestyle.
"At this point, I'd rather have him rot in jail because money back from him I will never receive," Antebi told the Herald.
Segal started the company under the name Scott Segal, in an effort to escape the notoriety he garnered for the attempted murder of his girlfriend Tanya Batista on April 19, 2001. He beat her unconscious and locked her in the trunk of her car with the intent to drown her in a lake. Officers came across him just in time.
