Edward Okun, owner of a multi-million dollar luxury home on Miami Beach’s Hibiscus Island, was jailed as a common swindler yesterday, after being convicted of bilking 600 people out of $132 million dollars in a Ponzi scheme. Okun was the sole owner of the now defunct Investment Properties of America and the 1031 Tax Group, both based in Richmond, Virginia.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence to show that Okun (in photo above at his 2005 wedding) used the money generated from his Ponzi scam, to fund a lavish lifestyle, which included a 5,500 square feet luxury waterfront home on a large lot on Miami Beach’s prestigious Hibiscus Island, as well as planes, cars, boats, and his lavish wedding in 2005.
Okun, 58, took the money that he collected from unwary people, who used his company to defer taxes on capital gains of property sales, and used it as his own. In court, his attorney said that Okun didn’t feel he did anything wrong, and that he had always intended to return the money.
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