3 CHARGED IN FISH FARM SCAM THAT HIT RETIREES
FDLE says three bilked six older investors of thousands for non-existent Blue Ocean Farm.
WEST PALM BEACH — Like a fisherman who feels a tug but comes up empty, several people invested a combined $500,000 or more in an ocean fish farm that didn’t exist, state investigators allege.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has charged Matthew Alec Braun, 36, of Boca Raton; Rebeca Gonzalez, 43, of suburban Boca Raton; and Michael John Creamer, 48, of St. Petersburg.
“The elderly age group targeted by the defendants represented some of the more vulnerable members of our community because of the perceived reluctance by senior citizens to report themselves as victims of fraud,” an FDLE affidavit said.
It added that the three defendants used “high-pressure sales tactics, bait and switch tactics, and unlicensed sale of unregistered securities to induce victims into investing in Blue Ocean, a Florida corporation that this investigation revealed existed for the sole purpose of perpetuating this fraud.”
Braun and Gonzalez each are charged with securities fraud, conducting an organized scheme to defraud, sale of unregistered securities and sale of securities by unregistered person. Jail records show both were booked Thursday morning into the Palm Beach County Jail and left later that day, each on $36,000 bail.
The FDLE affidavit listed similar counts for Creamer. A spokeswoman said Creamer had not yet turned himself in as of Friday.
The six alleged victims in the affidavit — The Palm Beach Post is not naming them — told investigators the defendants lured them into investing in Blue Ocean Farm, then stopped responding to calls and emails, and eventually the investors couldn’t find them.
■ A 70-year-old suburban
Lake Worth man said Gonzalez persuaded him to invest $15,000. He said she described “floating spheres” offshore in which fish could swim freely until they were harvested, but she “was not specific as to where the operations were actually located.”
■ An 84-year-old suburban Boynton Beach woman said the three took her for $50,000. She said she invested in various ventures, but Gonzalez and Braun later told her they instead had put the money into the fish firm and it was too late to change that. She said after she signed a promissory note, under pressure, Braun told her, “Well, I went to prison before, but this time I’m smarter.” Braun is not found in Florida prison records.
■ An 84-year-old man in Tamarac told investigators he initially put up $100,000 but that Gonzalez and Braun persuaded him to add $10,000. He said he got anxious when he pressed the people for documents and they were evasive.
■ An 86-year-old suburban Boca Raton woman said she lost $20,000. She said she contacted her grandson, a lawyer, who helped her file a lawsuit. She got back $9,500, the FDLE affidavit said.
■ A Port St. Lucie woman said she was persuaded to invest about $25,000 from her Walmart 401(k) account; and her mother, who since has died, put in $12,000. She said she trusted Gonzalez, who’d done investing for her mother in the past.
■ Relatives of a Sunrise woman who died at 71 in 2015 sued one of the shell corporations in Broward County Court in 2017, seeking $100,000. Family members told investigators the woman always has been “business-savvy” but that she’d developed a brain tumor and might have been impaired when she handed over money. The FDLE report does not say whether the suit was resolved.
Gonzalez did work for several legitimate securities and investment firms before, during and after the alleged frauds, the FDLE report said.
It said Braun worked for one firm but for only three months and was not licensed to trade securities in Florida at the time of the alleged frauds. And it said neither Creamer nor any of several corporations connected to the fish farm investment was authorized to trade securities in Florida.