Investment Fraud Scheme Nets 27 Months in Prison

Marvin Solis of Richmond, California was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution for an investment fraud scheme perpetuated against family members. According to the Office of the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), Solis pled guilty to two counts of wire fraud as a result of the scheme.

"Solis used an account at a TARP recipient bank to steal over $200,000 from trusting family members who spoke little English to enrich himself and engage in risky and speculative trading," said Christy Romero, Special Inspector General.

She continued, "Solis swindled victims out of their savings claiming he would invest in real estate ventures, and he fraudulently used credit cards opened in some of their names at different banks, including a TARP bank, causing losses to those financial institutions."

According to the plea agreement, Solis admitted to defrauding his then-wife's family members out of approximately $244,000. Solis told family members he would use the money to invest in real estate, but then spent the money he received making risky commodities trades. He subsequently lost the money.

Solis encouraged his victims to open credit card accounts to fund renovations for the homes he had promised to purchase for them. Instead, he ran up $10,000 of charges on the credit cards. Finally, he used the personal information of one of his victims without the victim's knowledge to open a credit card account in the name of Solis's company. He charged an additional $26,600 on the card, again without authorization.

Solis will begin serving his sentence on August 11, 2014.