Date: 10-27-2016

Case Style:

Case Number: 1:15-cr-20709-PAS

Judge: Patricia A. Seitz

Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Miami-Dade County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: John Gonsoulin and Vanessa Sisti Snyder

Defendant's Attorney:

Orlando do Campo

Description: Miami, FL - Kissimmee Resident Sentenced to More than 17 Years for Wire Fraud

A Kissimmee, Florida resident was sentenced to more than seventeen years in prison, after having been convicted at trial of wire fraud.

Michael John Alcocer Roa, 34, of Kissimmee, Florida, was previously convicted at trial by a jury of five counts of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Patricia A. Seitz sentenced Alocer to 210 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. A restitution hearing is scheduled for December 13, 2016 at 10:00 a.m.

According to the court record, including testimony and evidence presented at trial, Alcocer set up a Florida corporation called Inovatrade Inc. (“Inovatrade”) in October 2008. Between 2008 and 2011, Alcocer told people that they could trade foreign currencies at Inovatrade, set up managed accounts in which others could trade foreign currencies on their behalf, or earn guaranteed interest payments of approximately 15% per year or greater. Alcocer also represented that Inovatrade maintained all of its clients’ accounts segregated, safeguarded, and protected in a trust account.

Evidence at trial showed that based on those and other representations, approximately 300 individuals and entities sent Inovatrade over $7 million. Many of those individuals and entities received documents from Inovatrade purporting to show their account balances, as well as trading activity in their accounts or monthly interest and other promotional payments earned. But when individuals requested to withdraw their money from Inovatrade, many were unable to do so. Alcocer and Inovatrade provided various, and often inconsistent, excuses, and after some time, many of the individuals and entities received no more communications, nor did they receive their money.

Financial summaries of bank records associated with Inovatrade and Alcocer introduced at trial showed that little to no actual trading took place in the Inovatrade accounts, the vast majority of the money that entered the Inovatrade accounts came from individuals and entities rather than from business revenue, and Alcocer cashed out and transferred millions of dollars of that money from the Inovatrade accounts to personal accounts in the United States and in Panama.

Mr. Ferrer commends the investigative efforts of the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John P. Gonsoulin and Vanessa S. Snyder.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.

Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: