Rothstein Associate Sentenced on Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud in Connection with Fraudulent Investment Scheme

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and José A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID), announce today’s sentencing of Stephen Caputi, 54. U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch sentenced Caputi to 60 months in prison, to be followed a three years of supervised release. The court also ordered Caputi to pay $28,130,073.40 in restitution.

On June 15, 2011, Caputi pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with his involvement in a fraudulent investment scheme (the scheme) regarding the sale of purported confidential settlement agreements in sexual harassment and/or whistle blower cases purportedly being handled by attorneys at Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler, P.A.

According to the documents filed with the court and statements made in court, Caputi posed as a banker and as a purported plaintiff during meetings with persons who were investors in the scheme. Specifically, Caputi, posing as an official from TD Bank, provided investors with fraudulent bank statements that reflected purported balances of trust accounts at TD Bank. In this way, Caputi lulled the investors into believing that the account balances were sufficient to fund their investments. On another occasion, Caputi posed as a plaintiff during a meeting with potential investors who had requested to meet with plaintiffs. Caputi pretended to be a plaintiff who had purportedly executed a $10,000,000 settlement agreement, thus raising potential investors’ confidence in the deal.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lawrence D. LaVecchio, Paul F. Schwartz and Jeffrey N. Kaplan.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.