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, in a Florida Court house, Smith was sentenced to 30 years for four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and 18 counts of money laundering.
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.
Many hardworking Jamaicans lost money by Smith’s hands, and the Association of Concerned Olint Members said it has no confidence that the Financial Services Commission (FSC), will vigorously try to secure the investments of Jamaicans who lost money in the Ponzi Scheme. However, the United States is in the process of seizing the assets of the former Olint boss. US prosecutors have indicated that they will be going after US$128 million which David Smith obtained through wire fraud proceeds and a property he bought in Florida.
After serving his 30 years sentence, Smith faces three years of unsupervised release and deportation. Smith must also pay $55,646,896.54 to the victims of his crime.
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.
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