Florida men may face federal indictments in alleged fraud
A group of men accused of bilking hundreds of Southwest Florida residents out of at least $35 million will ask a judge today to put a state civil case against them on hold because they are facing a federal indictment.
The indictment would be the first criminal charges brought against anyone in the case involving Dallas-based AmeriFirst Funding Inc.
In early July, a court-appointed receiver seized the Sarasota and Fort Myers offices of Capital 1st Financial after the Florida Office of Financial Regulation accused the four men operating the offices — Vincent Bazemore of Sarasota and Eric Hall, Fred Howard and John Priest of Fort Myers — of a host of securities-related misdeeds.
The company the four worked on behalf of — AmeriFirst — has been placed in receivership, the company’s and directors’ assets have been frozen and the SEC is working to recover $55 million that investigators claim was raised by salesmen in Florida and Texas.