According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Robert Louis Cirillo, 61, was also mandated by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter to pay more than $3.9 million in restitution. More than $3.2 million was lost as a result of Cirillo’s investment fraud, while $400,000 was lost as a result of a different scheme that preyed on an elderly person. Cirillo was also charged with failing to pay $675,898 in income taxes.
In June, Cirillo admitted to securities fraud, filing a false tax return, and conspiring to commit wire fraud, according to the prosecution. Cirillo is charged with defrauding over 100 people between 2014 and 2021 by promising to invest their money in short-term construction loans that would provide returns of 15% to 30% for up to three months.
Prosecutors claim that Cirillo presented his investors with false bank statements, but in reality, he never invested their money and instead spent it on personal expenses like a trip to Las Vegas, credit card bills, and two cars.
According to authorities, Cirillo specifically targeted Latino victims with “limited means,” including one who put her entire life savings of $20,000 into the con. In his plea deal, Cirillo claimed that when victims learned they were being cheated, he threatened them.
Prosecutors claim that Cirillo allegedly took part in a different “grandparent scam” in the spring of 2021, in which he misled an 82-year-old by claiming that his grandchild had been detained for drug use. The grandma was instructed to transfer $400,000 by Cirillo’s accomplices as “bail,” but the money really ended up in Cirillo’s bank account.
Cirillo is accused of filing false tax returns and failing to disclose more than $3 million in income in 2015, 2016 and 2017, according to the prosecution. Prosecutors claim that Cirillo failed to include the more than $1.9 million he received from his securities fraud scheme in his 2017 federal tax return and instead reported only $30,985 in income.
