Posted on Fri, Jun. 5, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - A suburban Philadelphia fund manager has pleaded guilty to operating an $80 million Ponzi scheme.
Prosecutors say 53-year-old Joseph S. Forte lured investors by promising returns ranging from 18 to 38 percent - and pledging they would suffer no losses.
But losses are exactly what happened over time as Forte paid himself millions, bought a Jersey Shore house in Sea Isle, and donated more than $1 million to charity.
Investigators say he blew through more than $20 million from 1996 to 2008. Forte himself says all the money is gone.
Forte, a 1978 graduate of Villanova University, lives in Broomall with his wife and four children.
He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 on three federal fraud counts and money laundering.
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