Sydney Jack Williams of Naples, Florida was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison for failing to report more than $12 million to the IRS in related commissions received in Nevin Shapiro’s $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Williams previously plead guilty to an Information that charged him with one count of subscribing to a false tax return. During that proceeding, Williams admitted that he recruited more than 60 people to invest in Capitol Investments USA Inc. (“Capitol”), which Shapiro has admitted was a fraud.
According to court documents, Williams was an investor in Capitol, which Shapiro used to solicit approximately $930 million between January 2005 and November 2009 from individuals who believed they were investing in Shapiro’s grocery distribution business. Shapiro has admitted that Capitol had virtually no income generating business during that time, and that he used new investor funds to make principal and interest payments to existing investors, as well as to fund his own lavish lifestyle – including by giving payments and gifts to student and professional athletes.
Williams personally invested more than $100 million. Though Williams received more than $7 million in interest payments, he ultimately suffered an overall $3 million loss on his personal investment when the scheme collapsed.
In return for bringing new investors to Capitol, Williams was paid commissions equal to as much as the interest payments for those investors. Williams received more than $12 million for bringing more than 60 investors to Capitol – more money than any other individual received and for more investors than any other individual recruited. Individuals recruited by Williams invested more than $307 million with Capitol, eventually losing more than $38 million as a result of the scheme. The government does not allege that Williams was aware that Shapiro or Capitol was engaged in fraud.
In pleading guilty to subscribing to a false tax return that failed to report $1.7 million income for 2005, Williams admitted that he also failed to report Capitol-related income for all tax years from 2004 through 2007. According to the Information, Williams failed to report more than $6.4 million in income during that time and owed approximately $2.2 million in taxes on that income.
Father and son Roberto Torres, and Alejandro Torres – the former chief financial officer and an accountant with Capitol, respectively – each pleaded guilty April 4, 2011, to one count of securities fraud, admitting that they assisted Shapiro in the operation of the Ponzi scheme. Roberto and Alejandro Torres were sentenced Oct. 5, 2011, to 48 and 46 months in prison, respectively.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Wigenton sentenced Williams to a year of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine. The judge also ordered Williams to cooperate with the IRS in paying his outstanding tax obligations – Source.
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