White Plains resident James Doyle, age 74, and Carl Carro, age 61, of Walton, Delaware, were convicted of defrauding investors in New York and throughout the nation.
On Thursday, Jan. 12, Carro was sentenced to four to eight years in prison, and Doyle was sentenced to five years probation, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced.
As part of their respective sentences, Carro and Doyle agreed to pay a total of more than $1 million in judgments to the victims of their scheme.
Carro pleaded guilty in October 2022 to the following:
- Second-degree money laundering (Class C felony),
- Securities fraud under the Martin Act (Class E felony),
- First-degree scheme to defraud (Class E felony),
- Repeated failure to file personal income tax returns (Class E felony).
Doyle pleaded guilty in July 2021 to:
- Second-degree money laundering (Class C felony)
- First-degree scheme to defraud (Class E felony).
In January 2021, both Carro and Doyle were arrested and charged with multiple crimes for their roles in the Ponzi scheme. Last May, Carro was charged for failing to pay more than $75,000 in New York state taxes over a six-year period.
As outlined in the criminal complaints:
Carro and Doyle solicited investments in their companies, Endeavor Management Solutions, and Endeavor Consultancy, from more than 50 individuals in New York and other states between January 2012 and December 2020.
Carro and Doyle misrepresented to investors that Endeavor was a headhunting firm hired by prestigious clients to find candidates for openings on their boards of directors.
They first lured investors with false promises of interviews for board positions and then offered purported no-risk investment opportunities in their firm.
The two promised their victims that investments would be held in an untouched cash reserve fund that allegedly held over $1 million and guaranteed a 10 to 20 percent return on investment after 30 days.
An OAG audit revealed that investor funds were used for personal expenses and to pay back previously defrauded investors.
According to the audit, the two spent nearly $500,000 on cash withdrawals, more than $200,000 to pay personal credit card bills, more than $57,000 on pet expenses, and more than $350,000 to pay previously defrauded investors.
Altogether, Carro and Doyle stole between $15,000 and $30,000 from each of the more than 50 victims, with total losses exceeding $1 million.
The overwhelming majority of the stolen funds were diverted for Carro’s personal benefit, including over $170,000 in restitution to pay the victims of Carro’s prior criminal cases.
The audit also revealed that Carro failed to report over $2 million in taxable income, which included the amount he stole from victims, and failed to remit more than $100,000 in taxes owed to New York state since at least 2012.
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