Tampa, Fla – Kenneth Murry Rossman, 63, of Bradenton today pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and postal fraud and assist in preparing and filing a false income tax return. He faces a maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison.
Under the settlement agreement, Rossman, a Florida chartered accountant and licensed insurance agent, conspired with Phillip Roy Wasserman, a former attorney and licensed insurance agent, to defraud senior victim investors. The conspirators made false and fraudulent misrepresentations and hidden material information in order to convince older victim investors to invest their money in Wasserman’s new insurance company “FastLife”. Some victim investors have been persuaded to liquidate traditional investments such as annuities and / or raise funds for existing life insurance policies in order to generate cash to invest in the company. These victim investors were not informed of surrender fees and other costs related to the liquidations, and Rossman prepared income tax returns for victim investors in a manner that was intended to obscure the negative personal tax consequences of the liquidations from both the victim investors and the victims from the Internal Revenue Service.
The victim investors’ money was used to perpetuate the fraud and for the personal enrichment of the conspirators. Wasserman paid Rossman a percentage of the victim investors’ money as compensation for his role in the conspiracy. Wasserman also uses the victim investor money to make payments to former victim investors in the FastLife company, as well as to victim investors in his former hedge fund and real estate fund companies. Wasserman spent a significant portion of the victim investor’s money to fund a lavish lifestyle that included spending on his luxury residences, high-end vehicles, jet skis, jewelry, personal celebrity entertainment, gambling, retail stores, home improvement, personal insurance, and more personal benefit and the benefit of family members.
The conspiracy resulted in victim investors losing more than $ 6.3 million.
In November 2020, Wasserman was charged on a replacement charge of filing false income tax returns, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit wire transfer fraud and postal fraud, and significant counts of wire transfer fraud and postal fraud. His case is currently on trial in December 2021.
An indictment is simply a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case has been investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. It is being prosecuted by U.S. assistant attorneys Rachelle DesVaux Bedke, David WA Chee, Colin P. McDonell, and Rachel Jones.