An Orange County businessman and co-founder of the financial technology company formerly known as Aspiration Partners Inc., Joseph Neal Sanberg, has agreed to openly plead guilty to a grand scheme of fraud that wronged investors and lenders to the tune of $248 million. According to a U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California release, Sanberg faces two counts of wire fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
"This so-called 'anti-poverty' activist has admitted to being nothing more than a self-serving fraudster, by seeking to enrich himself by defrauding lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars," said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli, as stated by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California. Sanberg exploited his role at Aspiration, beginning in 2020, to defraud various lenders and investors by leveraging his company stock and inflating assets to secure loans. His guilty plea is expected to be formally entered in the upcoming weeks.
The scheme unfolded over several years, where Sanberg, alongside board member Ibrahim AlHusseini, fraudulently obtained $145 million in loans using falsified assets and bank statements. Furthermore, Sanberg conned Aspiration’s investors by hiding the true source of certain company revenues, which was him. Details from court documents reveal that Sanberg orchestrated fake commitments for tree planting services and misled Aspiration employees to keep his deceit under wraps.
Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the USPIS stated, "The defendant didn’t just bend the truth, he built a business on a lie to boost the company’s value and line his own pockets." The investigation, conducted by the USPIS and the FBI, exposed Sanberg's comprehensive deceit, which also involved creating fraudulent materials to misrepresent Aspiration's financial standing and securing millions in additional funds under pretenses. Victims of Sanberg's scheme have suffered losses totaling more than $248 million.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section and Jenna Williams of the Transnational Organized Crime Section, along with Justice Department Trial Attorneys Theodore Kneller and Adam L.D. Stempel of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Victims of the fraud scheme can contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit for support. For more details on the case or information regarding victims' rights, individuals can visit the official DOJ website.
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