A Mooresville, North Carolina, man pleaded guilty earlier this week to stealing more than $2.6 million in an investment scheme and from COVID-19 relief funds.
Steven Andiloro, 53, was in charge of an investment scheme fraud between 2018 and 2021, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte.
Andiloro persuaded people to invest in real and fake businesses and then used the money for his personal life and to “make Ponzi-style payments to other investors,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said he was also involved in COVID-19 fraud from April 2020 to March 2021, officials said.
He submitted false applications to the Paycheck Protection Program with false financial information about his businesses, including inflated revenues, costs, fake employment data and exaggerated payroll expenses, federal prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Andiloro used the $2.6 million to fund his lifestyle and investment scheme.
Andiloro was charged with securities fraud and wire fraud. His sentencing date has not been scheduled yet and he was released on bond, authorities said. Both his offenses, securities fraud and wire fraud, carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years each.