Federal prosecutors will seize five properties in South Florida they claim were acquired with fraudulently obtained funds.
Prosecutors filed liens to seize the properties in connection with an indictment of Daniel Joseph Touizer, founder and chief executive officer of Fort Lauderdale-based Wheat Capital Management. Three of the properties are self-storage facility development sites, and two are residences.
Daniel Joseph Touizer
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida indicted Touizer in September on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
An amendment to the indictment on Nov. 21 charged co-defendants Saul Daniel Suster and John Kevin Reech with mail fraud.
The defendants allegedly used false statements to defraud more than 150 investors who thought they were putting money into businesses controlled by Touizer, an Aventura resident.
According to the fraud indictment, Touizer used most of the $19 million he raised from investors to pay his personal expenses or sales commissions to agents in a call center.
Attorneys for the defendants either declined to comment or were unresponsive to a request for comment.
The five properties subject to seizure include a 3,024-square-foot house at 8368 Serena Creek Avenue in Boynton Beach and a 3,200-square-foot residence in Courtyard at the Point, 21213 Northeast 38th Avenue in Aventura.
Also subject to seizure is a 50,625-square-foot site at 2915 Northwest 36th Street in Miami, which is approved for construction of a self-storage facility.
Construction of self-storage facilities is already under way at the other two properties subject to seizure: a 42,991-square-foot site at 2801 John P. Lyons Lane in Pembroke Pines and 2.6-acre site in Margate on Northwest 31st Street just west of State Road 7. [South Florida Business Journal] – Mike Seemuth