A federal judge in Tampa, Florida, last week sentenced Phillip Roy Wasserman, a Florida man who once promoted himself as "the Annuity King," to 15 years in prison in connection with his role as a founder of FastLife Insurance.
Wasserman began selling financial services products in Florida in 1990. He started FastLife, a web-based life, health and annuity brokerage firm based in Sarasota, Florida, in 2016. The firm failed a few years later.
Prosecutors accused Wasserman of misleading FastLife's investors about its prospects and performance, using cash from newer investors to make payments to the original investors and telling victims not to cooperate with the investigators. In May, a jury convicted him of five counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, and one count of tax evasion.
In addition to sentencing Wasserman to a term in prison, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell ordered him to spend three years on supervised release, according to court records.
The judge previously ordered Wasserman to pay restitution. The final tally included in the sentencing order requires him to pay $5,993,523 to FastLife investors and $903,063 to the Internal Revenue Service.
The judge did not impose a fine on top of the restitution amount.
The sentencing order calls for Wasserman to report to prison voluntarily Feb. 23.
