Diane Wasserman stood before U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell on Wednesday evening, asking in a shaking voice to allow her husband to remain out on bond pending an appeal.
Sitting behind her at the defendant’s table in the marble and dark-wood chamber, Phillip Wasserman leaned back in his chair. He’d already knew his fate was incarceration. Now, he waited to find out how long.
Wasserman’s wife told Honeywell she’d known her husband for 44 years and that they had an amazing family, adding that he wasn’t a flight risk. As she walked away from the stand, she wiped away a tear.
The self-proclaimed “Annuity King” of Sarasota, Wasserman was sentenced to 15 years of incarceration followed by three years supervised release after he was found guilty in May 2023 on multiple counts of wire fraud and mail fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.
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Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, was indicted in June 2020 by a federal grand jury for running a “fraudulent insurance venture” called FastLife that included Ponzi-style payments from elderly, retired investors that funded his lavish lifestyle, including a beach house on Casey Key, Tampa Bay Lightning season tickets, jet skis, and luxury cars.