NJ man pleads guilty to ‘Ponzi-like’ scheme that defrauded nearly 100, including other Orthodox Jews, of more than $47 million

 https://www.jns.org/news/u-s-news/nj-man-pleads-guilty-to-ponz-like-scheme-that-defrauded-nearly-100-including-other-orthodox-jews-of-more-than-47-million

Leor Moshe, 43, an Orthodox Jew from Lakewood, N.J., faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines after pleading guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that defrauded more than 97 people of more than $47 million in a “Ponzi-like investment scheme,” Robert Frazer, U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, said on Thursday.

From June 2019 to June 2023, Moshe tricked people into investing in his company, Capital Funding ASAP, by “falsely representing, among other things, that their investments would be used exclusively to fund short-term business loans that would generate returns between 9% and 53%,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.

“In reality, Moshe used the money to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors and for personal expenses such as gambling debts, home renovations, mortgage loans and car loans,” it stated. “Moshe obtained approximately $47 million from investors, who were predominantly members of the Orthodox Jewish community, and used approximately $11 million for personal expenses.”