Andris Pukke, also known by the aliases “Marc Romeo” and “Andy Storm,” was sentenced to eight years in prison last month by U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken for orchestrating a massive real estate fraud in Belize, defrauding hundreds of investors, many of them retirees, of approximately $77 million.
The scheme, known as “Sanctuary Belize,” involved Pukke directing a vacation and retirement community under development and falsely promising investors that they could build homes or use the lots as investment properties. Pukke and his sales team induced victims to invest more than $100 million, while the majority were never able to build the homes they expected.
“Hundreds of hard-working Americans—many of them retirees—lost their savings to this brazen fraud,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. “Andris Pukke thought he could hide behind foreign land deals and false names, but he was wrong. This sentence removes a bad actor and serves as a warning to other would-be fraudsters.”
Pukke, 56, of Newport Beach, California, had prior convictions for mail fraud and obstruction of justice, as well as a previous $172 million judgment from the Federal Trade Commission linked to his company AmeriDebt. To conceal his involvement in Sanctuary Belize, he instructed salespeople to lie about his role and used aliases to mask control of the project.
Investigators found that Sanctuary Belize carried over $12 million in debt, and Pukke misappropriated nearly $10 million for personal expenses, including home renovations, loans, investments, child support, and land purchases in the Bahamas. While under investigation, he also attempted to corruptly avoid prosecution by trying to induce someone to create a sham document for authorities.
Pukke was convicted of wire fraud and obstruction of justice on July 10, 2024. In addition to the prison sentence, he received three years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $9,912,396. He is also responsible for $120.2 million in restitution to victims of Sanctuary Belize, as previously ordered in litigation with the FTC.
Nearly 200 victims sent letters to the court detailing the financial and personal harm caused by Pukke’s scheme.
U.S. Attorney Clayton praised the work of the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission in bringing the case to justice. The prosecution was handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey C. Coffman, James McMahon, and Kevin Mead.
