A Villager who allegedly who stole more than $3 million from fellow residents will be allowed to remove his court-ordered GPS monitoring device for a medical procedure.
John Michael Gissas, 73, of the Village of Gilchrist is scheduled to undergo the MRI on July 17 and the procedure cannot be performed unless he is allowed to remove the GPS, which has been ordered as a condition of his release on bond.
An attorney representing Gissas argues his client is not a flight risk, according to a motion on file in Sumter County Court. He notes that Gissas has put up his home as collateral.
“Lastly, Mr. Gissas’s wife is also elderly and uses a walker for mobility. Mr. Gissas is not a flight risk and he would be required to abandon his wife of many years to homelessness,” the motion said.
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.