CEO of San Diego-based financial firm sentenced to prison for fraud
Carlos Manuel da Silva Santos, a Portuguese national, was found guilty of tricking borrowers into paying him more than $17 million in up-front loan fees for nothing in return, the United States Department of Justice said in a news release Friday.
Santos admitted he and co-conspirators held Ethos out to the public as a 'full-service project financing' company that offered loans to prospective borrowers in exchange for an upfront fee as collateral for Ethos to use, according to his plea agreement. But when a borrower gave Ethos the upfront fee as collateral, the company never provided the funding on many occasions.
'To induce prospective borrowers to send Ethos an upfront fee as collateral and enter into loan agreements, Santos and his co-conspirators lied about Ethos' history of funding projects, the source of Ethos' money, the amount of capital available to disburse loans, and how Ethos used the collateral upfront fees,' the DOJ said.
In August 2021, Santos also was able to have a borrower wire money as a collateral upfront fee by sending a bank statement that falsely represented Ethos having $100,304,447.46 when it did not.
Santos admitted the financing scheme was international in places like the U.S., Brazil, Turkey and elsewhere.
Since his arrest on Nov. 13, 2023, Santos has been in custody in Newark, New Jersey, after arriving in the U.S. from abroad.
A restitution hearing will be held at a later date.
If you believe you are a victim of Santos and his company Ethos Asset Management, Inc., contact Homeland Security Investigations at ethos-victim@hsi.dhs.gov.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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