A Rochester, N.Y.-based man will spend more than 17 years in prison after being convicted in federal court for his role in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded about 1,000 investors of more than $100 million, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Perry Santillo was found guilty for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to launder money, and was sentenced to 210 months in prison for conspiring to run the scheme along with Christopher Parris (who also was convicted, but is yet to be sentenced), as well as others, according to the DOJ.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges to shut down the duo’s Ponzi scheme in June 2018, alleging that they’d defrauded investors from around the country over a period of more than six years. According to the SEC, Pantillo was registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) between 2003 and 2007 (including short stints with NYLife Securities and Nationwide Securities, according to his BrokerCheck profile).
Beginning in 2007, Santillo and Parris formed Lucian Development as a means to solicit investors in a separate business called City Capital Corporation, owned and operated by Ephren Taylor, but that year Taylor told the duo that investors’ money was depleted (Taylor was later convicted for running his own Ponzi scheme). Santillo and Parris responded by acquiring City Capital’s assets and debts, the latter of which quickly and…
