A real estate developer accused of misappropriating tens of millions of dollars that was supposed to finance the Sanctuary Belize development in the Stann Creek District has been sent to jail in the US.
56 year old Andris Pukke was convicted on one count of wire fraud and one count of unlawful monetary transactions in July and was sentenced on Monday to 8 years in prison by a judge in a New York courtroom. Prosecutors from the Federal Trade Commission showed that hundreds of victims - many of them, retirees-were defrauded of approximately $77 million dollars what the Belize-based real estate scam.
Pukke conned hundreds of US investors to put down more than $100 million in lots in Sanctuary Belize. They purchased lots with the understanding that they would obtain lots that they could use to build retirement homes, vacation homes.
In the process, Belize's Atlantic International Bank was also exposed and had to be liquidated while reaching a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
