Long Island Adviser LaMarco Gets 42 Months for FX Fraud

Longtime Huntington investment adviser Daniel Winston LaMarco, 51, was hit with a 42-month federal prison sentence Wednesday for orchestrating a years-long fraud scheme that wiped out more than $872,000 from unsuspecting clients. The verdict, handed down by U.S. District Judge Arthur D. Spatt in Central Islip, N.Y., marks the fall of a man who peddled false profits while bleeding investors dry in the volatile Foreign Exchange Market.

LaMarco, who pleaded guilty in August 2016 to wire fraud and commodities fraud, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay full restitution—$872,600—to the victims of his commodity pool scam. Prosecutors revealed that beginning in January 2011, LaMarco began aggressively recruiting investors, including two who pulled funds from a home equity loan, promising safety and consistent returns in the FX market.

Instead of steady growth, LaMarco delivered deception. He flooded investors with falsified monthly statements claiming their investments had ballooned to nearly $1.8 million. In reality, he had lost almost every dollar entrusted to him. The fake reports weren’t just lies—they were tools of manipulation, used to lure additional funds and prevent withdrawals while the real account balance withered.

Robert L. Capers, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the sentence and credited investigators from his office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section for dismantling the scheme. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark E. Bini led the prosecution, building a case that exposed LaMarco’s hollow promises and digital paper trail of deception.

The case was prosecuted under the umbrella of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, a sprawling coalition of over 20 federal agencies and 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices dedicated to rooting out financial crime. Since its inception, the task force has prosecuted more than 25,000 defendants in over 18,000 cases, with this conviction adding to its aggressive record.

DANIEL WINSTON LAMARCO, listed under E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 16-CR-433 (ADS), now faces the hard time he avoided with his victims. His arrest and sentencing serve as a stark reminder: when returns sound too good to be true, they usually are—and the feds are watching.