By all accounts, professional race car driver Henri Zogaib dripped money. He would often drive a Lamborghini, a Porsche or a Ferrari to racing events, lived in a $700,000 condo near the beach and at times flew on a private jet.
Now, Florida law enforcement agents say they are investigating whether any money he obtained was ill gotten. Although he has not been charged with any crime, authorities alleged in an affidavit released Thursday that he ran a $5.4 million Ponzi scheme along with a business partner.
Investigators are probing suspicions that money was taken from at least four professional race car drivers, the owner of the racing team Zogaib drove for, longtime friends and an ex-girlfriend, according to court documents.
The drivers were identified - in the search warrant affidavit and other court papers - as JC France, Greg Gimbert, Ryan Dalziel and Eddie Hennessy, Zogaib’s cousin. Also identified was Peter Baron, owner of SAMAX Motorsports, the team for which Zogaib raced.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents seized computers, cell phones and documents Wednesday from homes belonging to Zogaib and a business partner, Paul Bellanca. MiamiHerald.com
“The investors were everything from NASCAR race drivers to ordinary people like you and I,” said Wayne Ivey, resident agent in charge for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He said among the “victims” was a police officer who “invested his entire retirement.”
Ponzi schemes made recent headlines when Wall Street investor Bernard Madoff, 71, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the largest such case in history. A Ponzi scheme is when investors are lured with promises of large returns. The returns, if they come, are from new investors’ money, rather than from investment.
In the local investigation, one of the morning raids was at Zogaib’s oceanfront condominium in Ponce Inlet. The other was at the Ormond Beach home of Bellanca on Sawtooth Lane.
Ivey said agents took computers, computer equipment and documents from both homes and searched for evidence but made no arrests.
The FDLE is in charge of the investigation, which could take months to complete. Daytona Beach police and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office are also involved.
Ivey said at least a dozen investors were told they could get more than 40 percent returns for the investments in iron ore, including a NASCAR driver and several others involved in racing at all levels. Daytona Beach News-Journal
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