Florida Man Sentenced on Money Laundering and Tax Charges

ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Gary Shapoff, 62, of Boynton Beach, Florida, who was convicted of money laundering and making a false tax return, was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,228,605.84 by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley E. Tyler, who handled the case, stated that between January 2004 and July 2008, the defendant participated in a scheme to defraud investors who had invested approximately $2.5 million in international currency trading investments through the company Atwood & James S.A. During the course of the scheme, Shapoff used the mail and wire communications to facilitate the execution of the fraud. He also used illegally obtained investor proceeds to promote the scheme, in violation of the federal money laundering provisions, and did not report the gains that he made from the fraud on his individual tax returns. Shapoff offered the opportunity for “huge profits” in foreign currency trades that were never made in investors’ names.

This law enforcement action is part of President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch and, with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota; the United States Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Kevin M. Niland;, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Toni Weirauch.