UPDATE ON CONVICTED SARASOTA DRUG DEALER DANIEL PREWETT AND HIS JACKSON HEWITT TAX BUSINESS, Lawsuit targets Jackson-Hewitt

Sarasota Fl damaged by real estate scammers and hedge fund frauds.

LAWSUIT: Corporate offices ignored warnings about Ponzi scheme, they say.  SARASOTA COUNTY – Daniel Prewett had already been in prison on a tax fraud conviction when he began running the area’s Jackson Hewitt tax service franchises.

Then the felon started selling real estate investments out of the same office with a confusingly similar name: JH Investment Services.

Those who invested with him, and were ultimately ripped off, say he used the company’s national reputation to draw 130 investors and more than $18 million into a broad Ponzi scheme, the first of several fraud artists to strike the Sarasota investment market.

In court next week, one victim, a Sarasota dentist, will argue that Jackson Hewitt’s corporate offices should pay back the money that was taken.

His argument: the national tax preparation company ignored red flags about Prewett and left him free to prey on their customers.  

Prewett is serving an 18-year prison term on federal drug charges, an arrest that alerted investors that their trust in Prewett was misplaced.

To bolster the case against the national tax firm, the attorney for dentist Frank Kaman and his wife, Ellen, plans on calling more than a dozen other people who say they also lost their retirement nest eggs or life savings to Prewett.

Plenty of other investors in Prewett’s company, JH Investment Services, will be watching what happens as a test case for their own lawsuit, MORE FROM THIS SOURCE.

SARASOTA COCAINE DEALER LUCIANO ANGRILLI “PLED AND FLED” ON MAJOR TRAFFICKING IN COCAINE CHARGES, DRUGS SOLD THROUGH SARASOTA BARS OWNED BY DANIEL PREWETT

SARASOTA COCAINE DEALER LUCIANO ANGRILLI. “PLED AND FLED” ON MAJOR TRAFFICKING IN COCAINE CHARGES, DRUGS SOLD THROUGH SARASOTA BARS.

 

TAMPA – A federal jury relied on overwhelming evidence to convict Sarasota businessman Daniel Prewett of federal drug charges of Trafficking In Cocaine and money laundering charges, Prewtt Ran his cocaine operation out of his “front” an accounting firm at 5777 Beneva Rd Sarasota Fl during regular office hours, Prewett was the “main guy” in the Sarasota Cocaine powder Business.

 

A confidential informant (CI) for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded video of a meeting with Sarasota businessman Daniel Prewett about laundering $100,000 in supposed drug money. On the video, Prewett tells the confidential informant to write down his full name on a form. “Felipe,” the informant says. “You know, no full names.”

 

Later on the tape, Luciano Angrilli (his pic, he has fled), the manager at Prewett’s two nightclubs (Khrome and Ecstasy), tells the confidential informant (CI) about the benefits of Costa Rica and laundering the money through a loan. The confidential source then has an undercover agent bring in the $100,000 cash and tells Prewett he will go the loan route. Prewett, 58, former owner of Jackson Hewitt tax franchises and two Sarasota nightclubs, got a federal prison term of 16 years and is currently in the Fort Dix NJ facility .

 

Prewett also wired $80,000 to an undercover bank account so Luciano Angrilli, a man who ran his nightclubs, could buy 10 kilograms of cocaine from undercover agents. SARASOTA — Three men met at the Ritz-Carlton to talk business — the sale of several kilos of cocaine, and a way to launder drug money to leave no trace of the crime — according to federal court records. An informant tells federal agents Daniel Prewett is involved in selling cocaine and ecstasy at two nightclubs he owns, Khrome and Ecstasy.

 

Two informants, posing as drug dealers, offer to sell cocaine to the manager of the two clubs, Luciano Angrilli (pic above), at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton. An undercover DEA agent delivers $100,000 of supposed drug money to Prewett two times, and both times Prewett wires $90000 to an undercover DEA account from an account belonging to J.H. Investment Services Inc.. Angrilli was arrested on drug possession charges when he went to a commercial storage warehouse to load the cocaine into his trunk.

 

Luciano Angrilli pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine in March of 2008 but never showed up for sentencing in which he faced more than 10 years in prison, federal prosecutors said. “He pled and fled,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James Muench told a federal judge. “I’m guessing he’s in Italy, the office does not know if Angrilli left the country — or if he left the country at all.

 

Federal agents who posed as cocaine dealers say Angrilli and another man, Michael Parsons, met them at a Sarasota commercial storage warehouse and loaded kilograms of cocaine into his trunk. Parsons pleaded guilty to a related charge and is serving a 4 1/2-year Federal prison term at the Pensacola Fl facility.

 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it argued for Angrilli’s detention after his arrest, but a judge allowed him to remain free on bail. That bail arrangement usually continues until sentencing, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Steve Cole said.

 

Middle District of Florida (M/FL)

U.S. Marshal: Thomas D. Hurlburt, Jr.

U.S. Courthouse801 N. Florida Avenue, 4th Floor

Tampa, FL 33602-4519

(813) 274-6401

 

A Washington D.C.-based federal criminal defense attorney, Douglas McNabb, said that usually only happens when prosecutors go along with a request to remain free until sentencing because the defendant has cooperated and provided a lot of information.

 

“They are very, very angry at this guy and they are going to pull out all the stops in an effort to try to find him,” McNabb said.

 

Bill Warner

Private Investigator

www.wbipi.com

Gary Stanton

In what appears to be a related “Trafficking In Cocaine and Possession of Cocaine” case another Sarasota Bar owner Gary Stanton was arrested in September of 2007 at a location on South Tamiami Trail, he was also selling cocaine through his Sarasota bar.

GARY STANTON,  GARY A STANTON
09/06/2007 COCAINE-SALE/MANUF/DELIV. 06/10/2008 SARASOTA 0717335 3Y 0M 0D
Initial Receipt Date: 07/10/2008
Current Facility: TAYLOR WORK CAMP
Current Custody: MINIMUM
Current Release Date: 12/26/2010

The bar owner Gary Stanton was convicted and sent to prison for 3 1/2 years just recently, it is not known if Luciano Angrilli gave this guy up, but Angrilli was arrested in October of 2006 and DEA and ICE agents had 11 months to work on him before the next Sarasota Bar owner was arrested on the same exact charges, more to come, more to arrest.