Area man, 84, faces prison in securities scheme

TAMPA — Larry Carr, a resident of Carrollwood, has been sentenced to serve four years in federal prison for selling unregistered securities.

Carr, 84, pled guilty to the charges May 9.

According to a press release, the sentence handed down last week by U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew also requires Carr to pay more than $8 million in restitution to defrauded investors.

Carr, the release states, sold unregistered securities via a variety of Florida- and Switzerland-based companies all bearing the name Cita Trust. Rather than invest the funds he was entrusted with, he used the money to make interest payments to earlier victim-investors, to pay his employees’ salaries and to pay for personal expenses, including the lease payment for his luxury car, country club expenses, credit card bills and a tithe to his church.

The FBI and Florida Office of Financial Regulation invested the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke.