A former Middletown fire chief and investment manager who raked in $10 million from his own family, friends and fellow firefighters in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison.
Vincent P. Falci, 59, of Middletown was convicted on Dec. 13, 2018 of three counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud, federal prosecutors said. Falci created and controlled investment funds under the names Saber Funds and Vicor Tax Receivables LLP in the early 2000s, U.S Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a release
Early on, he targeted friends, family, policemen, firefighters and retirement funds for first responders and eventually Saber Funds grew to have more than 200 investors who poured more than $10 million into it, officials said.
He told his investors that the Saber Funds “were conservatively invested in tax liens – which generated high returns with little risk,” but he was actually diverting the money to himself, his family and other companies he controlled, Carpenito said.
He also used the money for day trading and real estate investments, he said.