Wednesday, one day shy of his 58th birthday, Coon will face a federal judge and be sentenced to up to five years, though his guilty plea will likely earn him a lesser term.
His scheme helped sink Coast, which was so crippled by bad loans that it was forced into a fire sale that cost its stockholders millions of dollars.
“His actions, for all intents and purposes, took the bank down,” said Alan Tannenbaum, a Sarasota attorney who represents 150 Coast borrowers ensnared in the scam.
It was one of the region’s first white-collar scams to surface during the Great Recession. Others who were caught later — such as Ponzi schemers Arthur Nadel and Beau Diamond — already are serving their time in federal prisons.
Coon pilfered $1.5 million through the fraud he carried out with a Tampa mortgage broker.
Money, as well all know, is the root of all evil, but is also the most sought after resource. Without question, it complicates relationships, especially romantic. It causes two people to look at their hard-earned money now as “ours” and not “mine”, and also combines two completely different financial philosophies and histories.