Alameda man pleads guilty in Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 20 victims out of millions
An Alameda man was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million in restitution after he admitted to defrauding millions of dollars from at least 20 individuals, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Long Nguyen, 35, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to four counts of wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement. He confessed that between September 2015 and July 2021, he defrauded his victims by making false claims about himself, his investment opportunities, how he would invest his victims' money, and what did with the funds.
Nguyen admitted to convincing victims to trust them with their money as he was a billionaire, and other people who invested with him had received high returns. He told his victims that he was starting his own hedge fund and that he had access to investment opportunities that he would and did invest victims' money into. According to his plea agreement, he also falsely claimed that he managed a real estate investment trust that would provide victims with monthly income.
Nguyen created fake screenshots that misled his victims about their supposedly growing investment account balances. In some cases, he pretended that he bought Teslas and homes for his victims, according to the plea bargain.
Contrary to his claims, Nguyen spent his victims' money for personal use and his Ponzi scheme wherein he used money from some victims to pay other victims back.
When his victims asked for their money back, he claimed that he was being audited, that his accounts had been frozen. He also sent fake checks that his victims were unable to cash in, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Besides his prison sentence and the restitution, Nguyen is also ordered to forfeit $1 million and serve three years of supervised release which will begin after his incarceration is completed, prosecutors said.