Millstone man gets off easy for ponzi scheme November 9, 2009
Posted by jefhenninger in News.Tags: Ponzi scheme
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I’d like to know more about this case. Michael D’Angelo was sentenced to three years in prison 10 months after pleading guilty to a second-degree charge of theft by deception in connection with securities fraud committed by his company, CMR Mngt. Group, LLC. He has agreed to pay a total of $670,177 in restitution and penalties and his ability to do so probably got him the deal.
He was charged by the state Divison of Criminal Justice in March 2008. An investigation revealed he convinced 26 investors to contribute more than $3.2 million to his company over the course of two years beginning in January 2004. Instead of making good on promises of 5 percent monthly returns generated by foreign currency trading and bank note trading, he used the new investments to pay off the original fund members. Like Madoff and all the others, this scheme works as long as you bring in new people. When the economy tanks and everyone wants their money, you get found out pretty quickly.
He also diverted large sums of money into the bank account of his wife, Diana D’Angelo and then used the funds to cover personal expenses that included their Monmouth County home and payments for high-end cars. Again, this is a classic example of what separates a bad investor and a crooked one. A bad investor suffers with everyone, a crooked one lives the high life.
Michael will be out of prison in about 6 to 9 months. After his home and other assets are sold, he’ll probably still have a nice chunk of change to pay back to his victims. The State could have probably hammered him with more charges but it seems like he had a good attorney that worked this out for him.
Story is here.
White Collar Crime News 
want to know the entire story about this SB, click the link on the original press release, and then click the complaint, and indictment..Be prepared to read for a while
http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases08/pr20080307a.html
Do you think he got off too easy?
As one of the victims, yes he got off dam easy, first he tried for months to get out of his guilty plea, claiming he was a victim and not the ponzi schemer he turned out to be. If you read the civil complaint, you can clearly see he got people into his money enhancement program, then how he finally was controlling their life, by forcing them into debt, which no matter how much he eventually gave back when he knew the Commission was investigating him, 90% of the victims will never recover from. In a way I felt sorry for him when he gave a good weeping performance in court, right up to the point when he said he treated everyone like family. Thinking back to the civil lawsuits he imposed on hard working people, for breach of fraugelent contracts everyone signed. His greed finally did him in. All he had to do was talk to the Attorney General and not lawyer up like he didnt know what was going on. The money he spent on his yard, new cars, refurnishings in his mansion, trip to italy, shoes and clothing, plus the money he gave his two closest partners in crime, all could have paid back his victims, and most likely whatever money he claims he lost.
Hope he has time to think what his family will now go through, for whatever time he spends in prison. He still got off easy…