A Villager accused of swindling fellow residents of more than $3 million has been released after posting a sizable bond he previously indicated he couldn’t raise.
John Michael Gissas, 73, of the Village of Gilchrist had been held since Sept. 28 at the Sumter County Detention Center on multiple charges of fraud. He was released this past week after posting $660,000 bond.
A bond hearing had been set for Dec. 12 in which Gissas’ attorney was scheduled to make the case for lowering the bond. Apparently, Gissas did not want to wait until December and found a way to come up with money.
According to the investigation that led to his arrest, Gissas placed ads in The Villages Daily Sun inviting residents to his investment seminars at the Waterfront Inn and VKI Japanese Steakhouse at Lake Sumter Landing. A Villages couple saw the ad in 2019 and attended Gissas’ seminar. They gave him $529,854 and never got a penny of it back. Another Villager lost $794,000 when she invested with Gissas. A total of 27 investors lost a total of $3.7 million with Gissas, according to the investigation report. There were said to be others who either could not be contacted or were too embarrassed to go on the record. The financial crimes investigator for the Florida Office of Financial Regulation found that Gissas from May 2018 to July 2020 “systematically deceived and took advantage” of the victims.
In the motion to reduce bond, Gissas’ attorney had claimed his client was a victim, too.
“He invested $350,000 of his own money into the same fund he is accused of knowing was fraudulent. Mr. Gissas lost a substantial portion of his savings that he lived off during his later years, and he is a man of reasonable means,” his attorney wrote in the motion.
The attorney claimed that Gissas is not a flight risk as he owns a home in The Villages and does not have a valid passport. The attorney had argued that Gissas was entitled to “affordable” bond.
