- A former Naples resident faces federal charges for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded dozens of investors out of millions.
- Brent Seaman is accused of raising over $36 million by promising high returns, but instead used the money for his lavish lifestyle and to pay earlier investors.
- The indictment includes charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns.
- Many of the alleged victims were elderly or retired residents whom Seaman reportedly met through church.
A former Naples resident has been indicted, charged with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that cheated dozens of investors out of millions of dollars.
Gregory Kehoe, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, announced the indictment at a press conference on Nov. 20 at the federal courthouse in Fort Myers.
Brent Seaman, 51, who now lives in Sarasota, is charged with five counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering and two counts of filing a false tax return.
He faces a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years for each wire fraud count, up to 10 years for each money laundering count and up to three years for each count of making a false tax return.
The indictment comes more than two years after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced civil charges against Seaman involving the same scheme in July 2023.
Seaman settled the case with the SEC, without admitting guilt, but a court-appointed receiver for the case has only been able to recover a fraction of the money lost by investors.
According to the SEC and federal prosecutors, the scheme involved at least 70 investors through an unregistered securities offering, many of whom Seaman met locally through church – and who are elderly or retired.
Seaman pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. He was released from jail on a $250,000 bond.
One of the conditions of his release is that he must stay away from any victims or witnesses in the case. He’s restricted from traveling and must stay within the Sarasota and Fort Myers areas.
Through his various affiliates, operating under the name Accanito, Seaman is accused of wrongfully representing himself as a successful investor, currency trader and entrepreneur and falsely promising guaranteed rates of return. He was not registered with the SEC, nor did he hold any licenses to sell securities.
According to the indictment, Seaman, along with others, raised more than $36.1 million from investors using “false and misleading statements” from June 2019 to at least November 2022. The money was not invested as promised, but used to repay early investors and fund Seaman’s lavish lifestyle.
In a Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid off with money taken from new investors, not from profits. The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, a swindler who in the 1920s falsely promised a 50% return within a few months on investments involving international mail coupons.
Seaman is charged with laundering money to pay his personal rent, purchase a Ferrari, buy jewelry and charter a private jet. According to the indictment, the 2019 convertible Ferrari 488 he purchased cost more than $165,000.
He’s accused of underreporting his income on both his 2019 and 2020 federal tax returns.
According to the indictment, Seaman guaranteed annual returns of between 18% and 30% on the principal investments made by his victims. He gave his investors the option to collect monthly distributions or to “roll over” their alleged profits “to accrue more” during the terms of their agreements, and he and others sent false monthly statements showing the investors that their investments were growing at the promised rates of return.
During the press conference, Kehoe said of Seaman: “He would take the money that he got from new investors to pay off the old investors, to give people the appearance that the investment was, in fact, pulling back the rate of return that he promised, which was completely incorrect.”
Kehoe warned others to “pack up your bags and leave, instead of investing money,” if approached about an investment that “guarantees you a rate of return.”
Seaman falsely told investors he would only put their money into start-up technology and software companies and use it to trade currencies and commodities. Ultimately, the SEC and FBI found that much of the investor money was lost through risky currency trading.
“Seaman caused his victims and victim investors to lose a substantial amount of their money because he never invested in technology startups,” Kehoe said. “He invested in currency trading, where he lost a significant amount of money over time.”
The case will be prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Fort Myers.
The indictment did not name any of the victims, but some who have come forward in the investigation and to the media have been linked to the non-denominational Grow Church in North Naples, which Seaman and his wife Jana once attended.
After learning about the indictment, Catherine Novy, a local investor, said Seaman “ingratiated himself into people’s lives.”
She shared that she met Seaman and his wife, Jana, in January 2019, when they attended Destiny Church in North Naples, after a church event. Before she knew it, she said, the couple became like family.
“I became a grandmother figure to his children and stepchildren that he adopted. I was Grandma Cathy,” said Novy, who is in her 70s.
She said he used his young children to develop a close bond with her, then tricked her into investing in his companies.
“Those children spent Christmas and Easter here,” Novy said of her home. “They became part of my life and I invested my life-long earnings with this man.”
Seaman, who has a daughter with disabilities, used it to his advantage, she said, garnering sympathy and building trust.
“They would pray over her, for her miraculous recovery,” Novy said. “He definitely manipulated a lot of people in that regard.”
She described Seaman as the “quintessential conman.”
“He lied right to your face without remorse. He said to me, ‘I treat you like my mother, and I know what my responsibilities are to you.’ That’s exactly what he said to me, as he took my monies for investments.”
In 2022, Novy said Seaman approached her about what he described as the untruths floating around about his investment funds, telling her not to believe them. She said she believed him for about a year and a half, before finally realizing he was dishonest.
“He told everyone, ‘I went to prison before, do you think I would go back there again?'” Novy said.
Seaman previously pleaded guilty to and served time in prison for wire fraud in Indianapolis. He was sentenced to 17 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
Laura Layden is a senior business and government reporter for The News-Press & Naples Daily News. You can reach her at [email protected].
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