News Americas, ORLANDO, FL, Fri. Aug. 12, 2011: For years prior to his arrest, David A. Smith was toasted among many in the Jamaican society as the head of OLINT, with some even getting the honor of flying on his private jet. On Thursday morning, Smith was jailed for 30 years or 360 months after he confessed to four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and 18 counts of money laundering.
But luckily for Smith, it was far less than the 20 years per count prosecutors had called for. Judge Mary S. Scriven also allowed Smith to have credit for time served but jail time must run concurrently. The Jamaican national has been in jail since he was extradited from a Turks & Caicos prison last August.
In 30 years, Smith faces three years, unsupervised release and deportation. He must also pay $55,646,896.54 to the victims of his crime. Three victims spoke at the sentencing.
Smith by his own admission said he executed a Ponzi scheme to defraud over 6,000 investors located in the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere out of over $220 million. He led investors to believe that he was investing their money in foreign currency trading and earning, on average, 10 percent per month, when in fact he was not trading their funds.
In addition to defrauding those investors, Smith conspired to launder the proceeds that were received in his scam, and he participated in the laundering of millions of dollars of proceeds that were obtained as a result of wire fraud.
Smith also conspired with others to launder approximately $128 million of proceeds that were obtained as a result of the wire fraud scheme, and he in fact laundered those millions of dollars. The purpose of the money laundering engaged in by Smith and his conspirators was to conceal and disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership and the control of the proceeds of the wire fraud.
