Bars from a prison jail cast a shadow on the floro.

TRENTON, N.J. — A South Carolina man was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for his involvement in multiple fraud schemes, including securities fraud, bank fraud, and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger announced. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton federal court.

Sandy John Masselli, 63, of Columbia, South Carolina, was convicted after pleading guilty to nine counts from a superseding indictment. The charges stemmed from schemes that defrauded investors and financial institutions over a six-year period, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.

Between September 2011 and October 2017, Masselli fraudulently solicited investments in his company, Carlyle Entertainment Ltd., by falsely promising an imminent and lucrative initial public offering (IPO) of Carlyle stock on the NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange. In reality, no application for such an IPO was ever filed, and the funds Masselli received from investors were misappropriated for personal use.

In addition to the securities fraud, Masselli engaged in bank and wire fraud by using fraudulent credit card payments to access additional credit, which he then failed to repay, causing significant losses to the credit card companies. He also attempted to deflect responsibility by falsely claiming his personal information had been stolen.

Judge Shipp sentenced Masselli to six years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Masselli was also ordered to pay $3.2 million in restitution and forfeit an additional $1 million.

The investigation was led by special agents of the FBI’s Newark Division, with assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric A. Boden and Alexander E. Ramey of the U.S. Attorney’s Trenton Office.

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