Man faces 400-year term in $126 million scam

Miami businessman Edward Hugh Okun is facing 400 years in prison when his two-day sentencing hearing starts on Aug. 4.

Okun, 58, was convicted in March of 23 charges in a $126 million scam that victimized hundreds of people across the country. Some of his victims are expected to testify during the sentencing hearing.

The scam was run through Okun’s now-defunct, Richmond-based businesses, Investment Properties of America and The 1031 Tax Group. It has not been disclosed why Okun moved his Indianapolis businesses to Richmond in 2005.

The government alleged that Okun’s romance and marriage to Simone Bolani in 2005 led to the fraud because Okun needed, among other things, nearly $6 million to divorce his wife.

According to the IRS, from August 2005 to March 2007 Okun spent $35 million on the divorce settlement, jewelry and boats—including a 131-foot yacht named after his new wife, whom he married in a $171,000 ceremony in December 2005.

In August 2005, Okun used The 1031 Tax Group to begin acquiring six other 1031 exchange companies, which are designed to temporarily hold money from clients’ real estate sales, deferring their capital-gains taxes under Section 1031 of the tax code.

Authorities say that during the same month he started buying the companies, Okun began raiding the client accounts, in part to buy more exchange companies to keep the scheme running as well as for personal reasons.

According to court records, there are 232 undisputed victims and 200 other potential victims. Okun did not testify, but his lawyers argued that he viewed taking the money from the accounts as loans he intended to repay.

Many of the victims have yet to recover all of the money that was taken from them. Okun is being held at the Northern Neck Regional Jail. Three others who played lesser roles and struck plea deals with the government, Lara Coleman, Richard B. Simring and Robert D. Field II, will be sentenced Aug. 13.