A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to a jail term of more than seven years for his part in a US$7 million wire fraud that promised investors lucrative letters of credit (L/Cs) through European banks and lenders.

Another defendant from the same US state will most likely be sentenced later this month.

Sentencing

James Massaro of Boxford has been sentenced to 87 months in prison and has been ordered to pay US$5.3 million in restitution after he admitted to orchestrating the multimillion US dollar wire fraud scheme with another man from the same US state.

The other man is Antonio Zappa, formerly of Gloucester, Massachusetts, who is already in jail for a separate offence.

Investors conned

Prosecutors say the two men conned at least 20 investors into paying fees, ostensibly to help secure multimillion US dollar L/Cs through European banks and lenders.

The investors handed over US$6,936,985 to Massaro and believed his claims that their investment would contribute to an initial payment to obtain a line of credit, which would then be used as collateral to obtain high-yielding L/Cs.

The two men then claimed the investors would receive a high percentage monthly return on the total L/C amount.

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