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Long Island resident Joseph Malvasio, age 65, of Bridgehampton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is named in an indictment unsealed by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District on Thursday, Aug. 10.
According to prosecutors, Malvasio conspired with 57-year-old Gregg Marcus, of Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, to run an advance-fee scheme through their business, Global Capital Partners Fund LLC.
The duo falsely claimed that the company was a legitimate business that provided loans to people interested in funding for private commercial projects, prosecutors said.
Instead, they allegedly collected various fees from their victims, including a “letter of intent” fee and an “appraisal" fee, which ranged anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.
Once they got the money, Malvasio and Marcus told victims that they would not be receiving a loan and would not be refunded for the fees they had paid.
In all, the scheme netted the duo at least $12 million from hundreds of victims between March 2017 and August 2023, according to prosecutors.
The proceeds allegedly went toward various luxury purchases, including payments in the tens of thousands of dollars to Porsche, BMW, and a yacht dealer on Long Island.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars also went toward payments for personal credit cards, prosecutors said.
Malvasio and Marcus were arrested Thursday morning and were expected to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan.
They are each charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
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