Thread by @MiamiHerald

IN TODAY’S MIAMI HERALD: Our reimagined newspaper features an in-depth look at David Coriaty, a businessman with expensive tastes, who convinced clients, ranging from NFL stars to elderly retirees, to invest.

It never ended well. 🧵

Over a career spanning two decades, the Florida man has left a trail of exasperated clients and investors who have accused him of being a financial flimflam artist.

For those who invest with the 52-year-old Coriaty, getting nothing is nothing new. miamiherald.com/news/local/cri…

In spite of the dozens who have stepped forward to accuse Coriaty — virtually all of whom describe similar experiences in sworn depositions, statements to investigators or interviews with the Herald — he has never been criminally charged with fraud.

“All crap,” he says.

“I was investigated by the FBI, the SEC, the IRS, the DEA, the DOJ…not one indictment,” Coriaty told the Herald. “Not one criminal charge. I was found innocent of any of those allegations.”

Records back him up.

Coriaty’s first accusations of fraud stem from a Florida-based company founded in the early 2000s — Hawk Systems — that was set up to market a device for preventing car thefts.

He racked up an impressive list of former football players as investors who now say he snookered them each out of as much as $250,000.

After Hawk, Coriaty transitioned into running an outfit called PROCAP. This time, his investors told the Herald, he sought capital not from football players but elderly individuals, including allegedly $675,000 from one man in West Palm Beach.

Coriaty told former girlfriend Rachel Ehrenreich about his new company and the cutting-edge biometric technology it was developing. It was already big, but it was going to be huge, she said he told her. But soon after, Coriaty’s credit card problems began.

When Rachel Ehrenreich met Coriaty in May 2016, she had a six-figure-salary with a pharmaceutical company and an 816 credit score. They started dating in August 2016. And he offered her a job paying $200,000, she says.

By 2019, after three years of being involved with him, she was jobless, in debt and struggling with PTSD, according to Ehrenreich. miamiherald.com/news/local/cri…

And yet Coriaty has never been charged with anything connected to his money losing businesses, his prolific spending of investor money or his failure to provide paid-for products.

He has been investigated. According to the deposition of a detective with the Palm Beach Sheriff’s office, Hawk appeared to be a Ponzi scheme with hundreds of investors.

The FBI’s thick, heavily-redacted file on Coriaty — which started as a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry — appears to cite multiple investors, each with the name redacted out, and ends with “based on the suspected criminal activity, it is suggested that [redacted].”

But 10 years later, whatever [redacted] was doesn’t seem to have happened, and none of the 16 investors with whom the Herald spoke ever saw their money again.

Before hanging up on the Herald, Coriaty acknowledged owing two companies and several people money, including Associated Aircraft Supply. But he added: “If I’m not making any money how am I responsible for paying him back?”

Lynda Pennington, 72, worked in retail and was an executive assistant for an engineering consultant firm before retiring, while Larry Pennington, 75, spent 30 years as a sales representative selling cameras and printers for Canon USA.

The couple said Coriaty courted them for months, buying them lunches and entertaining them in his luxury suite at Dolphins football games.

Visit our website or eEdition to read more.

You can find all of our coverage here: miamiherald.com/e-edition/today

We invite you to take a look at the reimagined Miami Herald, and consider supporting local journalists with a subscription: account.miamiherald.com/subscribe