Conman Coghill continued his Florida deals

Despite sitting in federal prison in Alabama, a convicted Albemarle swindler, who one victim dubbed a "silver-tongued devil," is making deals in northeast Florida, and that has some investors worried that they'll never see their money again.

The Jacksonville Business Journal reports that Thomas E. Coghill Jr. was involved in at least three deals totaling millions of dollars in St. Augustine after he was indicted in Charlottesville in November 2004.When he pleaded guilty to two fraud counts the following year, a federal judge demanded that Coghill refrain from entering into any financial transactions without permission. However, according to the article, even from prison in Montgomery, Coghill was promising investors huge returns.

Meanwhile, the Conch House Marina in St. Augustine, owned by one of the six LLCs Coghill formed between the time of his indictment and his plea, is being foreclosed.

When Coghill was falsifying documents to obtain loans or just not bothering to pay bills here in the 1990s, most of his victims were too embarrassed to admit how badly they'd been bilked. Two, however, sued, and in March 15, 2006, Coghill was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $2.8 million to Anchor Capital and $170,000 to First Western Investment in Charlottesville.

His projected release is January 27, 2008.

CORRECTION 3/19/09: Thomas Coghill's sentence was erroneously reported and has been corrected.