Portuguese Carlos Santos, 29 years old and CEO of the company Ethos Asset Management, was arrested on Sunday evening in the US state of New Jersey on charges of financial fraud by California authorities.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Carlos Manuel da Silva Santos was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, “upon arriving in the United States from abroad,” on charges of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a loan fraud.”
Santos, who faces up to 20 years in prison, is suspected of orchestrating the fraud through his company, Ethos Asset Management, based in San Diego, California, which provides financing to international companies.
According to the indictment, Santos required potential borrowers to pay an upfront fee equal to a certain percentage of the loan amount. However, after receiving the initial compensation, the Portuguese man and his company did not disburse the loan as agreed between the parties.
“Santos used the initial fees to reimburse other potential borrowers, pay commissions to his co-conspirators, and pay personal expenses,” the statement said.
The complaint alleges that in order to attract potential borrowers and obtain lines of credit from financial institutions for his scheme, the Portuguese man manipulated the company’s asset data and real financial account statements to artificially inflate Ethos Asset Management’s assets.
Among the businessman’s victims is a client who was ‘tricked’ into paying an initial fee of more than eight million dollars (7.35 million euros) into an Ethos account that did not exist.
The complaint states that Santos “altered Ethos’ bank statements to increase the balance of potential borrowers’ bank accounts, sometimes by more than $100 million (91.8 million euros) of what was deposited into the account,” according to the complaint. the judge in California.
In addition to the twenty-year prison sentence, the Portuguese businessman may also have to pay 250 thousand dollars (229.6 thousand euros) in fines.
On the LinkedIn platform, Carlos Santos describes himself as a philanthropist, economist and founder and CEO of Ethos Asset Management.
Source: DN
