Michael J. DaCorta, the 57-year-old Sarasota man convicted of running an $80 million Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay $52 million in restitution to victims.
The former head of a Longboat Key financial firm was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William F. Jung after being found guilty in May of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, money laundering and filing a false income tax return.
The court also ordered he forfeit $2,817,876.16.
Jung ordered the he immediately be taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.
Michael J. DaCorta, 57. (U.S. Department of Justice)
“Mr. DaCorta guaranteed his more than 700 clients an ‘oasis’ of an investment, when in reality all they got was a dust bowl of empty promises,” Brian Payne, the special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation unit, said in a statement issued after the sentencing.
“Today’s significant prison sentence ordered by the court should offer some measure of justice to all of those impacted by the destructive wake of Mr. DaCorta’s greed and indifference.”
According to testimony during the trial and to federal officials, DaCorta ran Oasis International Group Limited. In his role, he and co-conspirators “induced victims to invest in Oasis by falsely representing to victim-investors that Oasis was…
