WEST BOCA RATON MAN CLAIMED HE WAS A BROKER. WASN’T. TOOK MORE THAN $1M FROM WOMAN.
BY: STAFF REPORT | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — Boca Falls resident David Bruce Cohen is in the Palm Beach County Jail Saturday morning, awaiting sentencing on multiple counts of money laundering and fraud. He was convicted by a jury on Friday and immediately taken into custody. No bond has been set.
We first reported on Cohen in 2020 when he was arrested and charged with taking $1.2M from a woman who believed he was a licensed broker. He was not — and is not. Cohen told the woman he was investing the money in a cannabis company, a real estate development, and more. But investigators learned that he did not invest the money in anything other than himself. He was arrested in 2020 and charged with: “Fraud — Money Laundering 100k Or More,” “Fraud, Swindle, Obtain Property (valued at) $50,000 Or More,” and “Grand Larceny — First Degree $100,000 or more.”
The arrest report details months of investigative work by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and financial crimes experts. Here’s a key part: “In November 2016, Cohen induced her to invest $1,200,000 in a cannabis company, Mass Alternative Care Inc., based out of Massachusetts. She was to receive an 8-percent return. The interest would accrue for 24 months. She was to receive her first dividend payment in December 2018. She has not received any payments. In August 2017 Cohen induced her to invest $250,000 in a townhouse project. She was to receive a 12 percent return. The promissory note was to mature on July 1, 2019, and the principal and accrued interest would become due on the same date.”
The Palm Beach County Jury convicted Cohen of “money laundering, $100,000 or more,” and “theft, $100,000 or more.” Cohen will be held in jail until sentencing which is now set for January of 2025. We note his Boca Falls home is valued at $746,924 but has been re-deeded twice since his arrest in 2020. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, however, lists it as his current home address. Boca Falls is a gated community in West Boca Raton.
