The FBI is accusing the Miami man of trying to collect advance fees from businesses seeking venture capital funds.
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Published June 23, 2004
The vice president of a company with offices in New Port Richey and Pompano Beach has been arrested by the FBI and accused of operating a scheme to collect advance fees from people seeking millions in venture capital.
Fredric Blair Layne, 53, vice president of Williams & Associates International Inc., was arrested Friday and charged with wire fraud by the FBI in a complaint filed against him in Manhattan federal court.
The complaint said Layne, who lives in Miami and has an office in Pompano Beach, collected up to $1.2-million in advance fees from six alleged victims to arrange financing for large business projects. One investor sought $116-million for several projects the complaint did not identify.
But the complaint said Layne never arranged financing to any of the alleged victims, none of whom is identified by the FBI.
The company's president, Michael C. Scarpon Sr., 58, of Port Richey, who operates the business out of a New Port Richey office, is not named in the federal complaint and has not been charged with any crime.
The Florida Department of Financial Services confirmed the FBI also is investigating Scarpon, who formerly listed a Clearwater office. The department said it is assisting the FBI inquiry.
Layne is in federal custody in Miami and could not be reached for comment. Layne's lawyer, Scarpon and the FBI did not return calls for comment on Tuesday.
In March, Scarpon's Largo attorney, John Trevena, sent a letter to financial services threatening a lawsuit against the state. Trevena denies wrongdoing by his client.
In the letter, Trevena said that a financial services investigator had contacted several of Scarpon's clients and made "slanderous and defamatory" comments about Scarpon and told them to stop doing business with him.
"They were calling all his clientele and telling them they were never going to get funded and that my client was a crook," Trevena said in an interview. "And that's just an improper way to conduct an investigation."
Trevena said his client would be happy to answer questions the FBI may have about the business. So far, the lawyer said, nobody with the federal government has contacted Scarpon.
"It appears the FBI is merely trying to bring a case where one has already failed at the state level," Trevena said.
Trevena said his client's company provides venture capital for businesses seeking large amounts of money.
"The important distinction is that these are not advance fees for a loan," Trevena said. "These are fees for services rendered."
The Williams & Associates Web page said it is a domestic and international lender that specializes in funding projects turned down by banks.
The site says the company concluded $1.2-billion in transactions in 2001 for a variety of projects. In one case, the company said it arranged $126-million in venture capital for a Holiday Inn and convention center, though the Web site does not say where.
Other deals listed on the Web site are not described with enough detail to specifically identify them. And Trevena could not identify them.
In court papers, the FBI said it received a complaint about Layne and the company in April "alleging practices consistent with an advance fee scheme." An undercover FBI agent then contacted the company posing as a business person seeking $80-million in venture capital.
