Convict faces securities fraud charges

The last time Eddy Marin stood before a federal judge, he swore it would be the last.

He did not keep his word, federal prosecutors said.

Marin was charged with securities fraud Wednesday morning, a felony with a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison and a fine of $5 million.

According to the charging documents, Marin was president and secretary of Green Tree Capital, a Fort Lauderdale company that manipulated share prices in what prosecutors call a “pump and dump stock swindle” that was operating before, during and after his promise to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra.

Marin was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 2014 after he pleaded guilty to helping Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein hide his assets from investigators by selling off jewelry that belonged to Rothstein’s thenwife, Kim.

“I know I did a lot of things bad,” Marin told Marra during his sentencing hearing. “I paid my price. I promise you I will never be in front of you again for any reason.”

But even as he spoke those words on March 21, 2014, Marin was engaged in securities fraud, according to prosecutors.

The “swindle,” they said, was designed to enrich Marin by gaining control of a beauty supply company with operations in Sunrise named Valentine Beauty, then issuing phony news releases to make it appear the company was performing better than it was. When the stock price rose, Marin and his associates sold their shares for $1 million.

Marin organized the scheme and met with a coconspirator while he was in a federal prison in Miami, according to court records filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerrob Duffy.

Marin was previously convicted in a 1990 trafficking case that landed him in prison for 57 months and a money laundering case in 2000 that got him a oneyear sentence.

Marin, who lives in Davie and is not in custody, is due to plead either guilty or no contest in a state fraud and racketeering case on Friday.

Staff writer Paula McMahon contributed to this report.