CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The trial for a man accused of stealing hundreds of thousands from at least 20 people through various scams starts on Tuesday.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says they started an investigation after receiving a complaint in 2020.
Agents say Ludovic Laroche, 54, of Cape Coral, targeted the Haitian community during multiple presentations to several Haitian Christian churches in Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties.
Investigators say Laroche urged more than a dozen victims to invest in Laroche Real Estate Investments, LLC. under the guise that he bought and flipped houses.
Laroche, FDLE says, promised 10% interest annually on the investment; but never purchased houses to flip.
Agents say during an eight year period, he purchased five properties and sold four of them.
They also say he collected more than $672,000 from the victims, but only paid them $93,500.
Laroche is also accused of convincing victims to invest in Houdini Taxi Apps, LLC - telling he owned a taxi service and was developing a cell phone ride share app, FDLE says.
But, an investigation revealed he never owned any taxis and the application was never made available to the public.
The department says Laroche convinced a neighbor to give him $15,000 to invest in a car company, but Laroche never purchased the stock.
Laroche is facing 64 charges including the following:
- racketeering
- 35 counts of grand theft
- 13 securities, investments, prohibited practices
- 12 sale & offer of sale of unregistered securities
- 2 use investments from racketeering activity
- 1 violation of investment advisers
