Florida regulators sued two insurance agents who convinced clients to liquidate annuity investments and invest in a bogus real estate company by promising returns of up to 9%. Thomas A. Masciarelli and Steven Petrarca were convicted of aggravated white collar crime and making fraudulent investment transactions following an investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Fraud, and the Office of Financial Regulation. Detectives arrested Masciarelli a second time in 2005 and charged him with stealing $300,000 from three investors – a 58-year-old woman supporting a disabled adult daughter, an 82-year-old woman with no family,.
