CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. – Earlier today, Daniel Winston LaMarco, a Huntington, New York investment adviser, was sentenced to 42 months in prison and three years of supervised release following his August 2016 guilty plea to wire fraud and commodities fraud. As part of the sentence, LaMarco was also ordered to pay $872,600 in restitution to the investors in a commodity pool he ran which invested in the Foreign Exchange Market. The sentencing proceeding was held before United States District Judge Arthur D. Spatt.
The sentence was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Mr. Capers thanked the criminal investigators in the United States Attorney’s Office for their excellent work on this investigation.
Beginning in approximately January 2011, LaMarco began to solicit investors to fund a commodity pool he ran which invested in the Foreign Exchange Market. LaMarco made false claims regarding his investment performance, and touted the safety of his investment strategy. Among his victims, LaMarco encouraged two individuals to invest proceeds from a home equity loan with him. As part of his fraud scheme, LaMarco sent false monthly statements to investors representing that their investments were growing, inducing new investments from the investors, and discouraging them from withdrawing their investments with him. The monthly statements claimed the investments had more than doubled in value and were worth as much as $1,796,126.22. In truth, LaMarco had lost almost all of the investors’ money, which totaled more than $872,000, in the Foreign Exchange Market.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorney Mark E. Bini is in charge of the prosecution.
The charges were brought in connection with the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. The task force was established to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20 federal agencies, 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices, and state and local partners, it is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, investigatory, and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state, and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets; and conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions, and other organizations. Since fiscal year 2009, the Justice Department has filed over 18,000 financial fraud cases against more than 25,000 defendants. For more information on the task force, please visit www.StopFraud.gov.
The Defendant:
DANIEL WINSTON LAMARCO
Age: 51
Huntington, New York
E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 16-CR-433 (ADS)