Former CPA pleads guilty to wire fraud in $6.3M scheme

BRADENTON — Kenneth Murry Rossman, 63, of Bradenton, has pleaded guilty on wire fraud and other charges stemming from an alleged investment fraud. 

The additional charges include conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aiding in preparing and filing a false income tax return. The plea agreement stated Rossman conspired with Phillip Roy Wasserman to defraud elderly victim-investors, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. 

Rossman, a CPA and licensed insurance agent, faces a maximum penalty of eight years in federal prison. 

Rossman and Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, made false and fraudulent misrepresentations and concealed material information to convince elderly victim-investors to put their money into Wasserman’s new insurance venture called FastLife, according to the indictment. 

“Some victim-investors were persuaded to liquidate traditional investments, such as annuities, and/or to borrow funds against existing life insurance policies to generate cash to invest in the venture,” the indictment states. “These victim-investors were not told about surrender fees and other costs associated with the liquidations, and Rossman prepared income tax returns for victim-investors in a manner designed to conceal negative personal tax consequences that resulted from the liquidations from both the victim-investors and the Internal Revenue Service.”

Wasserman allegedly paid Rossman a percentage of the victim-investors' money as compensation for his role in the conspiracy. Wasserman also used victim-investors' money to make payments to earlier victim-investors in the FastLife venture, as well as to victim-investors in his earlier hedge fund and real estate fund ventures, authorities contended. 

Wasserman used the money to finance a lavish lifestyle that included luxury residences, high-end vehicles, jet skis, jewelry, personal celebrity entertainment, gambling, retail shopping, home improvements, personal insurance and other expenses for his personal benefit and the benefit of family members.

The conspiracy resulted in victim-investors losing more than $6.3 million.

In November 2020, Wasserman was charged in a superseding indictment with filing false income tax returns, tax evasion, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, and substantive counts of wire fraud and mail fraud. His case is currently set for trial in December 2021.