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On the brink of retirement two years ago, Bonnie Schloss was supposed to live the rest of her life without worry, a status she thought unreachable while losing her sister to leukemia and beating cancer herself between 1997 and 1999.

She had used money inherited from her sister to buy a rental property in her townhome community on Bradford Road in Silver Spring. When the value of her townhome had more than doubled in 2007, Schloss dreamed about selling it, planning to parlay the gains into a rental condo in Florida and to pocket the extra cash and retire.

It was then that a man she had never met, a man she calls a "crook," a "sociopath," and a "pathetic little nothing," took that all away.

"The first time I saw him, he was in striped pajamas," said Schloss, 59, referring to the prison garb worn by inmates. "It was hard to look at him."

Schloss' first in-person encounter with Edward Hugh Okun came in a U.S. District Court in Richmond during his March trial. On Aug. 4, the Miami businessman was sentenced to 100 years in prison for 23 counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, bulk-cash smuggling and perjury.

In January 2007, Schloss deposited $335,000 in real estate proceeds into Okun's Richmond-based company, The 1031 Tax Group LLP. The company was named after section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows homeowners to deposit proceeds from real estate sales into an intermediary company to avoid capital gains taxes.

In a $126 million fraud, Okun robbed more than 300 victims of their life savings, many of them "regular folks" like Schloss, who felt that their money was safe.

"It was his own personal piggy bank," Schloss said.

Federal prosecutors said Okun, 58, transferred money deposited in 1031 Tax Group LLP and its subsidiaries into personal bank accounts, financing a mansion, luxury cars, a 131-foot yacht and a $200,000 wedding to a woman half his age.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Dry, the prosecutor of the case was not available for comment.

In a bankruptcy court in New York Thursday, the victims received word that Okun still had enough assets to reimburse about 45 percent of their losses, a number higher than many expected.

It will return Schloss' life to some semblance of normalcy, but she says significant damage has already been done.

Schloss' sister and best friend, Linda, died of leukemia in 1997. A year and a half later, Schloss herself was diagnosed with cancer. She beat the disease, but it halted her career as a freelance video editor. After medical bills and the stock market crash in 2001, she lost one third of the money she inherited from her sister.

She then used what was left of her sister's inheritance to buy a townhome in her neighborhood for $130,000. By 2007, the value had ballooned to $335,000.

After deciding to buy a condominium in Florida, Schloss put the money into 1031 Tax Group in January 2007. But when she tried to extract the money four months later, the company had already filed for bankruptcy.

"That was an added insult to it," Schloss' older brother, Barry, a certified accountant, said of the ties between the money lost and their sister. "Linda was a very special kid, and she and Bonnie were very close."

The ordeal "took over" Schloss' life. With her retirement money gone and court proceedings occupying time she could have spent working, Schloss could only find solace with other victims who Okun had left with nothing and no one to trust, except for each other.

"Misery really truly does love company," said Beth Callanan, a Washington, D.C., resident who lost $854,000 when she and her husband used Okun to sell Beth's late father's home.

Other victims lost even more. An Atlanta man lost more than $3 million. A California woman lost $3.1 million. A Seattle woman, Darlin Boudreau, lost $482,000.

What resulted was a web of about 60 victims, many of whom traveled to the criminal proceedings in Richmond and bankruptcy hearings in New York, all becoming close friends online. They tirelessly researched the case and even transcribed court proceedings from Okun's trial in March, e-mailing the notes across the country the same night.

The group has dubbed itself the "Trainwreck Victims." They have developed into unwilling experts on tax law and an unofficial lobby for 1031 tax reform.

"In the old days, we used to be able to sell primary residences and pay no capital gains on the sale, provided we reinvested in a residence of equal or greater value," said Callanan, an English major in college. "Now [through the 1031 groups], it has to be someone you have had no contact with over the past two years."

Plus once the money is in the account, it can't be taken out until a subsequent sale is made, Schloss said.

Schloss is experiencing "a nightmare that too many families have suffered recently," said Bridgett Frey, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-Dist. 8) of Kensington, who Schloss has lobbied to enact 1031 tax regulations in Congress. "… Congress has passed landmark consumer protections in the 111th Congress and we will continue to work to strengthen laws and regulations to ensure more Americans do not fall victim to such deceptions."

Even Okun's attorney, Washington, D.C.-based Barry J. Pollack, questioned the Department of Justice's preference to wait and prosecute 1031 fraud cases, rather than prevent fraud through stricter regulations.

"It's a very ad hoc and not particularly effective way of dealing with these issues that plague the industry," said Pollack.

He was also disappointed with Okun's sentence of 100 years, given that Bernard Madoff received 150 years in prison for his highly publicized $65 billion Ponzi scheme and because "people are convicted of murder in this country every day and get sentences that are a fraction of that."

Callanan says the entire 1031 tax process should be eliminated. Schloss too wants stricter regulations, so regular people like her don't fall victim to greedy men like Okun.

"I went through this and it was horrible, but I can't do anything more for myself," Schloss said. "I want to do something for someone else."