Former CEO of Complete Business Solutions Group Inc., operating under the name Par Funding, Joseph LaForte, has been handed a 15½-year sentence after pleading guilty to a range of offenses, including RICO conspiracy and securities fraud. As detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, LaForte, aged 54 and a Philadelphia native, will also have three years of supervised release, which includes a year under house arrest. Judge Mark A. Kearney's ruling yesterday also subjects LaForte to asset forfeiture, like his private jet, and a significant financial restitution amounting to $314 million.
LaForte's sentence comes after, upon the SEC placing Par Funding in receivership, federal authorities found an actual fraud loss totaling roughly $404 million in July 2020, which was later reduced by credit for seized collateral from Par Funding. Alongside LaForte, his brother James and Joseph Cole Barleta, the company's CFO, were indicted for racketeering conspiracy among other crimes, with the SEC's intervention bringing the fraudulent operation to a halt.
While Joseph LaForte admitted to the RICO charge and other related crimes, he also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting an assault on one of the receivership's attorneys by his brother, James, as well as to a gun possession charge related to a discovered arms cache in his former residence. "He also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in aiding and abetting James LaForte’s violent assault on one of the receivership’s Philadelphia attorneys, and to a gun possession charge for firearms found in his former residence during the execution of a search warrant," details from the indictment on the U.S. Attorney's Office reveal.
In related proceedings, James LaForte, described as Par Funding's "enforcer," has already been sentenced earlier this month to 11½ years in prison after his own plea to charges which included racketeering conspiracy and the assault on the attorney. With threats made against several government witnesses, the indictments paint a picture of an operation willing to resort to violence. Following suit, Joseph Cole Barleta is set to face sentencing on June 2nd, having pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy last October.
