The son-in-law of indicted former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver pleaded guilty Monday to running a Ponzi scheme and will be sentenced Nov. 2 — the same day Silver’s trial is slated to start.
Marcello Trebitsch, 37, is expected to get five years in prison and be forced to forfeit $5.9 million.
He admitted in court that he lied to investors by telling them that he would make them double-digit returns through a low-risk investment fund he controlled.
“From 2007 to 2014, I received $7 million from investors,” Trebitsch said in Manhattan federal court. “I also gave them false account statements. I’m sorry for what I did, and I apologize to the court and my family.”
Asked by Judge Vernon Broderick whether he knew at the time that his actions were illegal, Trebitsch answered, “Yes.”
Broderick said the guideline sentence for the securities-fraud count to which Trebitsch pleaded guilty is 51 to 63 months.
“As Marcello Trebitsch admitted in court today, he ran a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors who put their faith in him and entrusted him with their hard-earned savings,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
“He returned their faith with deceit and self-dealing, lying about his trading losses and using investor money on himself.”
Trebitsch told the investors his investment firm, Allese Capital, made money by day-trading stocks and by creating public shell companies he then sold to private companies — but he was really spending the investors’ money on himself and to repay other people who invested with him, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney Ben Brafman said in a statement that Trebitsch has owned up to his crime.
“Mr. Trebitsch is guilty and has accepted responsibility for his conduct,” Brafman said.
“We believe, however, that when the entire case is explained to the court, there will be ample reason for him to be treated very leniently.”
Brafman declined to provide any further explanation.
The charges against Trebitsch are not connected to the corruption raps against Silver, sources said.
Silver, also probed by Bharara, resigned as Assembly speaker after he was charged in January.
He has tried unsuccessfully to get the charges tossed by claiming he violated no federal law by receiving fees for referring cases to a law firm.