A Bradenton, Fla.-based CPA has pled guilty to his part in a scam that defrauded elderly investors. Kennedy Murry Rossman, 63, admitted to the scheme in which a co-conspirator spent investors’ money on luxury residences, high-end vehicles, jet skis, jewelry and personal celebrity entertainment.
Rossman, who received a percentage of the proceeds of the scam, faces a maximum of eight years in federal prison after pleading to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false income tax return. Victims lost more than $6.3 million.
Rossman admitted he conspired with Phillip Roy Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, in convincing victims to put their money into Wasserman’s new insurance venture, “FastLife”. Some were persuaded to liquidate traditional investments, such as annuities, and/or to borrow funds against existing life insurance policies and were not told about surrender fees and other costs associated with liquidations
Rossman then prepared income tax returns, concealing negative personal tax consequences for the victims.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind