North Port man pleads guilty to unlicensed firearm sales, faces 5-year sentence

A North Port man has pleaded guilty to dealing in firearms without a license and faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Larry Alan Goldman, 63, has also agreed to forfeit the 29 firearms he owned or acquired while committing the offense and to pay a fine of $25,000. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

According to the plea agreement, undercover agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and an informant bought around 14 firearms from Goldman’s vendor booth at a flea market in North Fort Myers. During that time, Goldman did not have a Federal Firearms License authorizing him to make those sales. In September 2021, ATF agents visited Goldman at his North Port home and served him with a Notice of Unlicensed Firearms Dealing Violation, and Goldman agreed to stop selling firearms.

Following that meeting, however, undercover ATF agents purchased two more firearms from Goldman at the flea market in September and October 2021. On Oct. 19, 2021, ATF agents executed searched Goldman’s home as well as a truck and trailer that he used to do his sales. Agents seized around 29 firearms and around $36,828 in cash. They determined that between January 2020 and September 2021, Goldman had bought around 313 firearms.