The company raised more than $300 million from investors with promises to refurbish aging properties into luxury hotels, guaranteeing a 15 percent to 20 percent return as well as future income via a rental program, prosecutors said.

In reality, prosecutors said Cay Clubs never developed the properties as promised, and used proceeds of sales to new investors to make payments to earlier investors.

Prosecutors also said Clark conducted more than $20 million in fraudulent mortgage transactions, while living a lavish lifestyle.

Clark's conviction in December came in his second trial, after jurors deadlocked in an earlier one in August and acquitted his wife, Cristal Clark, who was also an executive in the company.

Two other former Cay Clubs executives, Barry Graham and Ricky Stokes, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and were each sentenced in March 2015 to five years in prison.

Prosecutors estimated the losses by investors and underwriters at more than $169 million. Meanwhile, they said Clark personally gained almost $40 million, money that he used to support a "lavish lifestyle" and make his own investments in enterprises like a gold mine and a rum distillery.

During pre-sentencing arguments, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said the Cay Clubs operation "sounds very much like a Ponzi scheme."

"The bottom line is it's using the money of later investors to pay earlier investors," Martinez said. "People were told that they were going to make money on these things. And they didn't. And not only didn't they make money, they got hosed."

About two dozen Cay Clubs investors traveled from all over the country to the sentencing in Key West.

Laurie McNulty, of Charleston, S.C., said the losses cost her much more than money.

"It has hurt my marriage. It's taken so much time away from my kids," McNulty said, recalling one particularly painful phone call from her husband about her daughter. "I missed her first steps because I was working overtime."

David Clark (no relation), an airline pilot from Monterey, Calif., said he and his wife lost $750,000 in cash on eight Cay Clubs properties - and are still coping with the financial effects of the loans from diminished credit scores to limiting their kids' college choices.

"We were cutting corners to save as much money as possible," he said. "We didn't give gifts to each other. Our 25th wedding anniversary was a card."

Fred "Dave" Clark did not testify, but his attorney said the underwriters who provided loans for Cay Clubs buyers bore much responsibility.

"Mr. Clark truly believed in the product. He paid mortgages," said Valentin Rodriguez. "He tried hard to keep his company going. ... We would not be here if the recession had not occurred. Everybody would be wealthy."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald said he did not buy that argument.

"Bubbles always burst," he said. "The only people not hurt were [defendant] Dave Clark and his family."

The case is U.S. v. Clark, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 13-cr-10034.