{"id":15989,"date":"2019-07-13T11:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/?post_type=oarticle&p=4306424"},"modified":"2019-07-13T11:46:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T15:46:00","slug":"pennsylvania-man-ordered-to-repay-more-than-640000-to-scam-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/07\/13\/pennsylvania-man-ordered-to-repay-more-than-640000-to-scam-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Man Ordered To Repay More Than $640,000 To Scam Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jul. 13–A Lilly man sentenced to federal prison last month has been ordered to repay more than $640,000 to 12 individuals and the IRS as part of a scheme he conducted under the guise of a financial adviser.<\/p>\n

A restitution hearing scheduled for Douglas Simanski on Friday was canceled after a joint stipulation was reached between Assistant United States Attorney Stephanie Haines and Assistant Federal Public Defender Christopher Brown.<\/p>\n

That joint stipulation, which was filed Wednesday, directs Simanski to repay 100% of $640,662.34 to 12 individuals and the IRS. Some individuals on the list were owed as much as $67,920, while Simanski has been ordered to repay $207,437 to the IRS.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said outside the knowledge of his investment firm employer, Simanski operated a Ponzi-style scheme based on false documents and inflated promises that deceived 31 people, including retirees and war veterans, into more than $4 million worth of fraud over the course of 14 years.<\/p>\n

Last month, U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson ordered Simanski, 54, to spend six and a half years in federal prison.<\/p>\n

Simanski was also ordered to receive three years of court supervision following his release.<\/p>\n

Simanski was sentenced on securities and wire fraud as well as filing false federal income tax returns from 2013 through 2015.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Simanski also used fake investment CDs and pledges of up to 10 percent returns to coerce people he knew into investing their money, oftentimes their retirement savings.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Simanski convinced one grieving man to cash in and invest a life insurance policy while his wife was dying at UPMC, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

At sentencing, Ashville VFW Post Commander David Seymore said Simanski was a longtime member, which made it natural for the group’s members to trust him with their investments.<\/p>\n

Seymore said Simanski’s actions had a trickle-down effect that impacted the organizations the club supports and the community, which has since hesitated to support the post because of Simanski’s actions.<\/p>\n

Simanski told Gibson at sentencing that he fell victim to the same investments, which included a coal mining company that eventually folded, and could not repay people with his own money.<\/p>\n

Brown unsuccessfully pleaded for home confinement rather than jail time for Simanski, whom Brown said had few resources to his name and didn’t live a lavish life, aside from his home, which is now in foreclosure.<\/p>\n

As of sentencing, Haines said more than $3 million of the $4.5 million Simanski acquired was unaccounted for and suggested he spent a significant amount of investors’ money on his home and family.<\/p>\n

Haines said Simanski built a $400,000 home with $18,000 bamboo flooring and garage updates and also invested money into an online E-trade account under his wife’s names so the funds couldn’t be traced to him.<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Brumbaugh is a reporter for the Tribune-Democrat. Follow her on Twitter @JBrumbaughTD.<\/p>\n

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(c)2019 The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.)<\/p>\n

Visit The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.) at www.tribune-democrat.com<\/p>\n

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, PA) Jul. 13–A Lilly man sentenced to federal prison last month has been ordered to repay more than $640,000 to 12 individuals and the IRS as part of a scheme he conducted...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}