Special agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement recently arrested a man wanted for his role in a large-scale investment fraud scheme that targeted investors from Central Florida and the United Kingdom.

Authorities located Hudson Gabay, 42, in Miami Wednesday night after receiving a tip on his whereabouts and arrested him for an organized scheme to defraud more than $50,000.

Investigators allege Gabay solicited investors to pay down payments on vacation homes that were to be built at Elliot’s Landing, a proposed housing development in Osceola County. Gabay, operating a company called British American Homes, contracted with Classic Florida Realty, of Kissimmee, to be the exclusive broker for marketing and sales of the vacation homes.

Since 2004, several hundred investors have paid an estimated $15 million to Gabay for the construction of the vacation homes. To date, no homes have been built.

The investigation revealed that neither Gabay nor his company had any ownership rights to the proposed construction site in Osceola County until he actually financed the plot in March 2006.

Investigators say Gabay used the initial investments to finance the purchase of the property so that construction could begin, then kept the remainder of the $15 million for personal use, spending it on luxury cars, interior decorating and a condo as part of his lavish lifestyle in the Miami area.

Gabay was booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail. Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Office of Statewide Prosecution will prosecute this case.