Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York | Department of Justice
Andris Pukke, also known as “Marc Romeo” and “Andy Storm,” has been sentenced to eight years in prison for orchestrating a large-scale real estate fraud scheme involving the Sanctuary Belize development. The sentencing was announced by Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, after U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken handed down the sentence.
According to prosecutors, Pukke led a fraudulent operation that convinced hundreds of people—many of them retirees—to invest more than $100 million in lots at Sanctuary Belize, a planned vacation and retirement community in Belize. Victims were told they would receive developed lots suitable for building homes or investment properties. However, most were unable to build the promised homes.
“Hundreds of hard-working Americans—many of them retirees—lost their savings to this brazen fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Andris Pukke thought he could hide behind foreign land deals and false names, but he was wrong. This sentence removes a bad actor and serves as a warning to other would-be fraudsters.”
Court documents revealed that Pukke had previously been convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and faced a $172 million judgment from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to his involvement with AmeriDebt, another deceptive company he controlled. To conceal his role in Sanctuary Belize from potential investors wary of his criminal history, Pukke used aliases and instructed salespeople to deny his involvement.
Salespeople working under Pukke falsely claimed that all investor funds would be used for property development and that Sanctuary Belize carried no debt. In reality, the project had over $12 million in debt, and nearly $10 million was misappropriated by Pukke for personal expenses such as buying and renovating a waterfront home, repaying loans, investing in startups, making child support payments, purchasing land in the Bahamas, and making payments to family members.
While under investigation by federal authorities in New York, Pukke attempted unsuccessfully to persuade another individual to create a fake document intended to mislead prosecutors and avoid prosecution.
Pukke was convicted on charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice on July 10, 2024. Nearly two hundred victims submitted letters describing significant financial harm resulting from the scheme—including loss of retirement savings.
In addition to serving eight years in prison, Pukke will have three years of supervised release following his sentence. He has been ordered to forfeit approximately $9.9 million and is subject to an earlier FTC order requiring him to pay $120.2 million in restitution.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Federal Trade Commission. The prosecution was managed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey C. Coffman, James McMahon, and Kevin Mead from the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit.
