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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

SoCal Ponzi Man Gets|10 Years in the Slammer

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) — A Newport Beach businessman who defrauded 700 investors in a $50 million Ponzi scam was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $40 million in restitution.

Joseph J. Lampariello, 62, who recently moved to New York, was sentenced to 121 months and ordered to pay $39,961,859 in restitution.

Lampariello pleaded guilty in May 2012 to wire fraud and tax fraud. He could have been sentenced to 21 years, according to press reports after his guilty plea.

He was president and COO of Medical Capital Holdings, a medical receivables financing company with offices in Anaheim and Tustin. He told the more than 700 people he defrauded he'd use their money to buy accounts receivable from medical providers, make secured loans and provide money for operating expenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in announcing the sentence.

Actually, he paid himself "administrative fees," and used the money to make Ponzi payments. Some of his victims had to come out of retirement to survive after he fleeced them, prosecutors said.

The SEC sued him in 2008, but it dropped the case when criminal prosecutors took over.

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