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A Massachusetts funding advisor has pleaded responsible to a number of counts of fraud and different costs after a failed try to flee the nation whereas he was awaiting trial.
Steven Xigoros, of Lowell, Mass., is dealing with as much as 25 years in jail for defrauding shoppers of greater than $3.5 million to pay private bills, together with playing money owed, in keeping with the Division of Justice.
Xigoros was indicted in September 2021 when the Justice Division charged him in a long-running scheme to entice shoppers to make investments with him, mendacity in regards to the securities he mentioned he would buy, and creating false account statements to hide the theft.
“When the shoppers adopted Xigoros’ recommendation, he made few or no investments on their behalf and as an alternative used the shoppers’ funds himself, together with to make funds in opposition to his playing money owed,” the Justice Division mentioned in its indictment.
Xigoros’ lawyer, Scott Lauer, a federal public defender, declined to remark for this text.
Final month, whereas Xigoros was free on pretrial launch, he booked a flight to Athens, and was arrested on the Newark, N.J. airport. His launch circumstances solely permitted journey inside the U.S., in keeping with his arrest warrant.
This week, Xigoros entered a responsible plea for 2 counts of wire fraud, one depend of aggravated id theft, and one depend of submitting a false tax return.
Two of the victims have been an aged couple who had invested their life financial savings—$1.3 million—with Xigoros and misplaced all of it, in keeping with the Justice Division.
The id theft cost stemmed from Xigoros appearing as a shopper’s consultant within the sale of a chunk of actual property. Underneath the phrases of the sale, the shopper was to obtain annual funds for $400,000 for 5 years. Xigoros organized for these checks to come back to him, not the shopper, and endorsed at the least a few of them within the shopper’s title, depositing the funds in an account he managed, in keeping with the indictment.
Along with being an funding advisor, Xigoros was additionally an accountant and tax preparer.
The Justice Division famous that Xigoros didn’t report the cash he stole as revenue and pay taxes on it, and that he owes the IRS round $1.6 million.
Court docket paperwork say he was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after arrest. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2023.
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