A man from Los Angeles County has consented to plead guilty to orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than $5.9 million, preying particularly on elderly churchgoers. Sylvein William Maximilian D'Habsburg XVII, also known as "Sylvein Scalleone," acknowledged his involvement in wire fraud, which carries a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, as per The Justice Department's announcement. The scheme, which spanned from January 2018 through June 2023, leveraged D'Habsburg's companies, Wild Rabbit Technologies LLC and BAI Intelligence LLC, to wrongly assure mostly Filipino parishioners of significant returns on investment.
D'Habsburg represented himself as possessing an artificial intelligence capable of predicting the future and diagnosing COVID-19 from just a video recording, in his attempt to lure investors. He falsely claimed to have garnered about $500 million from celebrities and retired athletes, including names like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Steve Wozniak, according to information obtained by CBS News Los Angeles. These false pretenses helped him to rapidly funnel investor funds into personal luxuries rather than the promised technological advancements.
Instead of hiring personnel or securing patents as he had promised, D'Habsburg diverted the funds to extravagances like a 1933 Rolls Royce Phantom II and rare 1800s Giltwood Thrones. The duplicitous activities led his investors, many vulnerable and elderly, to suffer approximately $5.9 million in losses. The FBI's ongoing investigation has brought to light the depth of the deceit D'Habsburg perpetuated against his trusting investors.
D'Habsburg's day in court will arrive in the coming weeks when he is expected to formally enter his guilty plea before a judge in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. "“Sylvein Scalleone,” of West Hills, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud," stated a press release by The Justice Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Jason C. Pang and Alexander Su are the prosecutors for this case, which serves as a reminder for investors to remain vigilant about where and with whom they choose to place their trust and resources.
