Matthew Taylor, 42, a former fishing guide who’s been president of Savage Yachts in Madeira Beach, Florida, since 2004, has been arrested on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded his customers of about $1.5 million.
Detectives with the Economic Crimes unit of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office arrested Taylor and charged him with four counts of grand theft, four counts of money laundering, one count of scheming to defraud, and one count of escrow depository violation. They took him to the county jail.
The detectives started investigating Taylor when they received a complaint from a person who said he paid Taylor $480,000 toward the purchase of an Azimut 86 in July, 2018. By the end of the year the person did not have his money or his boat, and he became victim number one in the investigation.
The detectives then turned up three other complaints. Victim number two bought an Azimut 62S from Taylor in March, 2018. In September, he gave Taylor $20,214 to upgrade the electronics on the boat. The victim said that never happened. In November, Taylor convinced the man to upgrade to an Azimut 62E, and the person gave him $669,995. The person never got the boat.
Victim number three had worked with Taylor for years, buying and repairing boats. In March, 2018, he gave Taylor $30,000 to buy engines, but Taylor did not buy them. He told police that Taylor owed him that $30,000 plus another $257,000 from previous sales.
Victim number four bought a Grady-White from Taylor in 2013. In 2017, he sent Taylor $30,000 to buy three boats to repair and sell, but he claims nothing happened. In 2018, Taylor persuaded the person to sell the Grady-White for $57,988 and then talked him buying another boat. The victim never received the new boat or his money; his total loss was $123,870.
Detectives said that Taylor was running a Ponzi scheme until he ran out of new deposits or investors, leaving him unable to deliver boats or pay back any money.
The police issued a statement saying that, “As a boat broker, Taylor was also required by law to place all deposits for vessels into an escrow account that complied with Federal law. Taylor treated the account as if it were a business operating account and a personal checking account, which does not follow the law.” Read more:
