San Diego Financial Firm's CEO Pleads Guilty To Fraud, ID Theft

SAN DIEGO, CA — The founder and CEO of a San Diego-based financial firm pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.

Carlos Manuel da Silva Santos, 30, headed Ethos Asset Management, Inc., which the U.S. Attorney's Office said caused more than $17 million in losses to victims in the United States.

Prosecutors say Ethos offered loans to prospective borrowers who paid upfront fees as collateral, but loan funds often were never provided. Other times, the loans were made up of collateral fees paid by other borrowers, prosecutors said.

Santos and others at Ethos also made numerous misrepresentations about the company's ability to provide loans and to that end, altered financial statements to falsely represent Ethos' assets, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

For example, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Santos forged the signature of a bookkeeping firm employee to falsely represent that the firm had audited a financial statement claiming Ethos has over $2.2 billion in total assets. Another time, Santos sent a borrower a bank statement that falsely stated Ethos had more than $100 million.

Though Santos' plea agreement outlines $17,125,000 in losses to U.S. victims, prosecutors say they will seek to offer evidence at a restitution hearing "that Santos owes significantly more money to various other victims."

Santos was arrested in New Jersey in November of 2023 and has been in custody since then.

— City News Service