Central District of California · Friday, October 16, 2026
Orange County fund chief sentenced to 33 months
The File desk · Oct 16, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC
Status
Confirmed as the Central District of California’s Oct. 15, 2026 release. The sentence and the restitution are the office’s account of Judge Fred W. Slaughter’s order. The scheme is from court documents as the office describes them.
- Confirmed
Marco Giovanni Santarelli, 57, of Laguna Niguel, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $63,165,357 in restitution.
- Confirmed
He pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of
. The office says more than 400 investors lost about $63 million.Legal instrument
Wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343)
Using a phone line, the internet, or another wire to carry out a scheme to cheat someone out of money or property. The statute sets a maximum of 20 years. Justice Department releases cited here do not always name the section.
Marco Giovanni Santarelli, founder of Norada Capital Management in Laguna Niguel, was sentenced Thursday to 33 months in federal prison. Judge Fred W. Slaughter also ordered him to pay $63,165,357 in restitution. He had pleaded guilty in October 2025 to Legal instrument Using a phone line, the internet, or another wire to carry out a scheme to cheat someone out of money or property. The statute sets a maximum of 20 years. Justice Department releases cited here do not always name the section.Wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343)
The release is dated Oct. 15, 2026, from Santa Ana. Santarelli is 57. The office says that from June 2020 to June 2024 he sold unsecured notes from $25,000 to $500,000 and promised, in marketing, about 12 percent to 17 percent a month for three to seven years.
Investors were told the payments would come from five kinds of businesses, including online commerce, real estate, Broadway shows, and cryptocurrency, and that the notes were backed by diversified assets. Balance sheets sent to them listed assets between $143.3 million and $224 million, the office says.
The office says the fund was unprofitable, hid more than $90 million of debt, inflated assets, and paid interest with other investors’ money, which it calls Ponzi-scheme fashion. Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI investigated, with help from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The office says more than $5 million has been seized.
What is still unknown or disputed
- The judgment and the plea agreement were not opened.
- The release does not cite the statute section for the wire-fraud count.
- “Approximately 12% to 17%” is the office’s description of the marketed monthly rate.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
Former CEO of O.C.-based private equity fund sentenced to nearly 3 years
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California · October 15, 2026
Marco Giovanni Santarelli, 57, was sentenced by Judge Fred W. Slaughter to 33 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $63,165,357 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count of
. The office says more than 400 investors lost approximately $63 million.Legal instrument
Wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343)
Using a phone line, the internet, or another wire to carry out a scheme to cheat someone out of money or property. The statute sets a maximum of 20 years. Justice Department releases cited here do not always name the section.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-ceo-oc-based-private-equity-fund-sentenced-nearly-3-years-federal-prison