FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 12, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Lerman Law Firm (Cathy Jackson Lerman, P.A.) is calling on Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody to make good on a promise to aggressively pursue financial swindlers who target and steal from senior citizens and other victims across Florida.
“As a lawyer in South Florida for the past 35 years, I have witnessed time and again our seniors being conned out of their retirement savings by convicted felons and Ponzi schemers. What I have not seen is aggressive law enforcement or prosecutions for these financial frauds, even in cases like Hawk Systems, which has been devastating to the victims but happening in plain sight and after law enforcement has concluded that it’s a criminal enterprise,” said Lerman.
Hawk Systems duped hundreds of investors – from professional football players to middle class senior citizens – by claiming to own patents on cutting-edge biometric fingerprint technology.
The former CEO of Hawk Systems, David Coriaty, admitted under oath in depositions that even though millions of dollars in investor money was spent lavishly by the company’s executives, no product was ever produced. In fact, many investors including the former NFL players have reported being led on a fake tour of a Florida production facility where they believed manufacturing of products to be sold by Hawk Systems was underway.
Hawk has also openly declared $22 million in losses to the SEC, with only $5,570 in sales. A leading financial crimes expert in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office performed an in-depth investigation of the company and concluded that it is “an organized scheme to defraud.”
This scam has received scrutiny from trusted media outlets like WSVN Channel 7 News, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post and the NY Daily News. Yet law enforcement has done absolutely nothing while Hawk continues to operate, with millions of shares traded just this month.
More than six months ago, Lerman sent Moody all the details of the open and shut case involving Hawk, but has yet to receive any response whatsoever from Florida’s Attorney General.
“When Floridians elected Ashley Moody, they trusted that she would make good on her promises to go after serial fraudsters such as those who operated Hawk systems. Now we need to see immediate action. The citizens of Florida, including victims whose lives were devastated by this clear fraud, deserve to know if the Attorney General’s office intends to pursue justice or simply allow the culprits walk away unscathed, only to repeat their crimes.”
The Hawk Systems scheme reportedly spans at least 13 states and involves a number of affiliated companies including Hawk Biometric Technologies, Inc., Hawk Biometrics of Canada, Inc., Auto Secure, Inc., Auto Secure USA, Inc., Secure Start USA, LLC and Fist Enterprises, LLC.
Victims of the Hawk Systems scam, witnesses or whistleblowers should contact Cathy Lerman, Esq. at [email protected] or (954) 332-1143.