Ex-Newport man gets 10-year prison sentence for $50-million Ponzi scheme
A former Newport Beach resident was sentenced Monday to 10 years and one month in federal prison for running a $50-million Ponzi scheme through his business, according to authorities.
Joseph Lampariello, 62, was the president and chief operating officer of an Orange County-based medical financial services company called Medical Capital Holdings Inc., according to federal prosecutors.
Instead of using money from the company’s investors to make loans and purchase medical debt as promised, Lampariello paid himself administrative fees and paid back earlier investors with the funds, authorities said.
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Lampariello did this for 11 months in 2008 and 2009, eventually misappropriating almost $50 million from 700 investors, according to prosecutors.
“The massive monetary figures can’t begin to explain the devastation to victims in this case, some of whom were forced out of retirement, some who lost their marriage and many more who lost trust and live with despair as a result,” Deirdre Fike, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement.
Lampariello, who has moved to Huntington Station, N.Y., pleaded guilty in 2012 to one felony count of wire fraud and one misdemeanor count of willfully failing to file a tax return.
At the sentencing, U.S. District Judge David Carter also ordered Lampariello to pay more than $39.9 million in restitution, federal officials said.
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Jeremiah Dobruck, jeremiah.dobruck2@latimes.com
Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck
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