Joe Mack’s $547 Million Merchant Cash Advance Lie: A True Crime Case

[0:03] It's November 21st, 2019, and it's a Thursday evening at the Sheraton Hotel. [0:09] In King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. About 300 people fill a banquet room, mostly middle-aged, mostly middle-class. Teachers, plumbers, and retirees. And they're here because someone promised them a free steak dinner at Ruth's Chris. And a chance to learn about an investment returning 10 to 14 percent a year. Or, in some cases, up to 44 percent. At the front of the room, a man takes the microphone. He's confident. He's relaxed. Next, he tells the crowd he started the company eight years ago with about $500,000 of his own money. He says they're probably the most profitable cash advance company in the United States. Maybe the world. Pound for pound, he tells them they can trust him. That real lives are behind these investments. And that means a lot to him since day one. [1:19] According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, every word of it was a lie. He never invested a single dollar. The company was hemorrhaging tens of millions of dollars a year. And the man at the microphone? He was a twice-convicted felon who'd done time for grand larceny, money laundering, and illegal gambling. His real name was Joseph Laforte. But nobody in that room knew that. Because sitting in the crowd, in a seat just like everyone else's, was a man holding a car key fob he'd bought on Amazon for $49. But it wasn't a key fob. [2:16] This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I'm Steve Rode, and for 30 years I worked as an investigative writer chasing financial criminals from Ponzi schemers to corporate fraudsters. I also spent years in emergency services, two years as a police dispatcher, surveillance photography with local law enforcement, and I was a chief pilot for public safety flight operations. But this story really stuck with me because over the years, I have seen so many good people and small businesses fall into the business cash advance trap. So, yeah, this story had me from moment one. [2:59] I need to tell you this. The events described in this episode are based on federal court documents, sworn testimony, government filings, and credible published reporting. Joseph and James LaForte are convicted defendants who pleaded guilty. All other individuals referenced are described according to their legal status, as established in court records at the time of the events. James LaForte faces a separate pending federal indictment in the Eastern District of New York. Stephen O'Dozer's prior bank fraud conviction was later pardoned by presidential action. His legal status is described as it stood during the events covered here. No one charged with the incidents involving attorneys Justin Proper, Shane Heskin, or SEC attorney Amy Berlin has been criminally convicted of those acts. [3:58] This is the story of a half-billion-dollar fraud built on a fake name, a prison friendship, and the promise of easy money. It's the story of how one man stole from 1,600 investors while threatening borrowers with car bombs, cement shoes, and the kidnapping of their children. And it's the story of what it cost the people who believed in him. Hey, if you're new here, hit subscribe wherever you're listening. And if you want the case files and court documents behind future stories, be sure you subscribe at truecrimeunheard.com. Subscribers there get the court documents whenever a new show drops. That's truecrimeunheard.com. [4:56] Before I tell you about the man who took their money, I want you to meet the people he took it from. According to the restitution chart filed at sentencing, it was a spreadsheet listing every victim by name and dollar amount. The investors in PAR funding were ordinary people like you and me. 1,600 of them, according to court filings. Maybe more. They came from Philadelphia, from the suburbs, from Colorado and Florida, and everywhere in between. They were drawn by promises that sounded reasonable. Hey, just park your savings here and earn 10-14% a year. Some funds advertised even higher. And the pitch came through seminars, through financial advisors, through word of mouth and backyard fences. A friend of a friend had done well, the checks cleared on time, and the statements looked clean. What could go wrong? [6:03] Robert Hyralak was 70 years old, living in Boothwin, Pennsylvania. He was a retiree. He put his savings into PAR funding through one of its investment vehicles. As of May 2025, according to the Pennsylvania Inquiry, he'd gotten back about $22,000 and was still owed $32,000 more. He was working part-time jobs just to cover his bills. Ron Grazivna was 62. He invested roughly $600,000. He told reporters, And they fooled a lot of smart people. [6:54] Then there were the families who lost everything. The restitution chart shows the Marcus family, Harold Marcus Personally, Harold Marcus IRA, Harold Marcus Roth IRA, Harold Marcus Real Estate Trust, Myra Marcus Residual Benefit Trust, Marcus Family Investments. Six entries, one address, and every financial instrument they had. And according to court filings, their combined loss was approximately $2.6 million. And the distribution received as of sentencing? Zero. And there's the Guile family of Aspen, Colorado. Five investment vehicles. One address on Spruce Street. Approximately $8 million. dollars. Distribution? Zero. These were the people who trusted Joseph LaForte. They just didn't know his name. [8:04] Joseph LaForte was born 1971 in Brooklyn, New York, and according to Philadelphia Magazine's 2024 investigation titled Lone Wolves by Craig McCoy. Laforte grew up in a family with alleged ties to the Gambino crime family. His grandfather was known as Joe the Cat and was identified in Philadelphia Magazine's reporting as a reputed Gambino lieutenant. And according to the same investigation in 1987. The mutilated body of an enemy of John Gotti was found in one of the grandfather's Staten Island buildings. [8:49] Laforte's criminal career started early, around 2000. According to court records and victim complaints to regulators, he extorted a contractor named Joseph Zarrilli out of $92,000. The contractor later wrote to regulators, I certainly would like my money back and not have to worry that some organized crime person is going to kill me like they intimidated. In 2005, the Laforte family, Joseph, and his brother James and their parents were arrested on Long Island for a real estate fraud scheme involving at least $12 million, fake law firms, and proceeds spent on Bentley's, Rolls Royces, and Mercedes Benzes. According to the Nassau County District Attorney, it was one of the largest fraud schemes the office had seen. In October 2006, Joseph Laforte pleaded guilty to grand larceny, money laundering, and conspiracy. In December 2009, he pleaded guilty again, this time to illegal gambling conspiracy. [10:06] He went to federal prison at FCI Farriton, New Jersey, and it was there, in a cell block in the fall of 2009. That he met the man who would become the most important hire of his career. Renato Joey goes by Gino, a former bodybuilder, tanned, tattooed, muscle-bound. At the time of their meeting, the FBI would later identify Joey as a reputed associate of the Gambino crime family. A characterization Joey and his attorneys have long denied. [10:52] They were cellmates. And I want you to hold that detail because a single email written six years later would reveal exactly how this criminal empire was built. But I'll come back to that. La Forte was released from prison in February 2011. According to the Criminal Judgment and Bureau of Prison Records, he was placed on federal supervised release, meaning he was still technically in the custody of the federal government. [11:27] And that same year, he founded PAR Funding. [11:33] A twice-convicted felon on supervised release, started a financial company. He incorporated it in his wife's name, Lisa McAlhom, a St. Joseph's University graduate who ran a nail salon in Old City, Philadelphia, called Lacquer Lounge. She was listed as sole officer, president, and CEO. And here's that email. A 2016 message from Laforte to his CFO entered into evidence, quote, Add Lisa, my wife, to a position to get these guys used to seeing her name. Give her a title, unquote. [12:25] That's how you build a half-billion-dollar empire when you're a convicted felon who can't put his name on anything. You put someone else's name on everything. Prosecutors would later call her a proxy. She rarely set foot in the office. And Laforte? He operated entirely under the name Joe Mack. According to his guilty plea transcript, he hired a New York reputation manager to bury online news articles about his prior convictions. He never appeared in corporate documents. At his September 2024 guilty plea, when the judge asked him if he'd used any other name, his answer under oath was two words. Joe Mack. [13:19] Leforte couldn't sell directly to investors. He was invisible. So he found Dean Vagnacci. Vagnacci was a Philadelphia-area financial advisor. He was a regular on KYW Radio and Talk Radio 1210. According to Philadelphia Magazine, he ran investment seminars advertised with free Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Dinners, the same format as that King of Prussia dinner. He raised more than $100 million for PAR funding through a series of vehicles called ABFP income funds. These were part of what the government described as a network of more than 40 agent Shells with names like Sherpa Income Fund, Capricorn Income Fund, and Capital Source 200, Each one sold its own promissory notes to investors and then funneled the money to PAR funding. According to the Rowan University academic paper analyzing this case, this two-layered structure meant investors were buying unregistered securities through feeder funds, two steps removed from the actual loans. Most of them had no idea at all. [14:47] According to SEC civil enforcement filings, Vagnacis was aware of Laforte's criminal history. And according to Philadelphia Magazine's investigation, when later asked why he didn't tell investors, he said, hey, everybody deserves a second chance. He was never criminally charged, and he settled with the SEC for $5 million. bucks. By 2024, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Vagnazzi was driving a FedEx truck at age 55. His cars had been repossessed, his insurance license was stripped, the soccer benches with his name on them had been scrubbed. Par funding claimed to be the type of company in the debt world known as a merchant cash advance company. We call them MCAs. Now, that's a legal financial product where a company buys a smaller business's future receivables at a discount and provides immediate cash. [15:54] Sounds logical. Parr told investors it was making money on these deals and passing the profits back to them at 10-14% annual interest rate. [16:07] According to federal court findings in Miami, the actual business generated only $39.9 million in net cash flow over nine years of operation. That wasn't even enough to cover operating expenses, let alone pay investors. Beginning in 2016, according to Judge Mark Carney's fraud loss analysis, new investor money was used to pay old investors their interest. The hallmark, the court wrote, of a Ponzi scheme. Between 2016 and 2020, annual deficits reached as high as $70 million. And in that same period, according to court findings, Laforte, McElhone, and their CFO paid themselves and fellow insiders more than $150 million. [17:08] At its peak, Parr funding employed 70 people out of a leather-couched office in Old City, Philadelphia. Laforte ran every aspect of the operation, but his name appeared nowhere. Not on the letterhead, not on the corporate filings, not on a single business card. 70 employees, $547 million in investor money, and the man running all of it was a ghost, called Joe Mack. [17:50] The investors had no idea. None. The true default rate on merchant loans was approximately 20%. About one in five borrowers couldn't repay. And Laforte told investors, hey, it's less than 1%. We're doing great. When merchants defaulted, PAR didn't write them off. No, they offered reload agreements. knew larger loans that reset the repayment clock. And the receiver's attorney, Gatan Alfano, would later describe it in open court as a fraud within a fraud within a Ponzi scheme. Internally, there was a saying, A rolling loan gathers no loss. The following, I need to stop here because I want you to understand something about the people on the other end of these loans. I've spent 30 years as an investigative writer covering financial predators, and I've seen this pattern over and over, and we've talked about it in past episodes. Businesses that take merchant cash advances aren't shopping for the best deals. They're the ones the bank's already said no to. They're behind on payroll. They're two months from closing, and that's exactly who companies like Par Funding target. [19:18] Because desperate people looking for easy loans don't read the fine print, and they don't ask why the interest rate is 400%. They just need to make it through the next month. So what you're about to hear, the threats, the violence, and the intimidation, Keep in mind that the people on the receiving end weren't deadbeats. They were small business owners who'd already been failed by the system before Laforte ever got his hands on them. And then he sent his people to their homes. [19:56] Now, remember that prison cellmate? This is where a Ponzi scheme becomes something else entirely. According to FBI Special Agent John Murray's testimony at sentencing, Renato Gino, Joey, visited over 700 merchants at Laforte's direction. Many of those visits were unannounced, and during some of them, Laforte watched live on FaceTime from his home in Pennsylvania, directing the confrontations in real time. At a Florida business owned by a man named Jose Parea, Joey showed up and didn't leave. According to court documents, the standoff lasted eight long hours. Eight hours! At the end of it, Parea physically removed the Rolex from his wrist and handed it to Joey. One of Perea's employees texted Laforte afterwards, Please call off the hounds. And by that, I mean that animal you sent down here. [21:13] Joey texted Laforte at 624 in the morning after showing up unannounced at another merchant's business. By the way, Radiant Mike is scared. Could not believe I arrived. Laforte texted a collector about a different merchant. Hit Radiant hard with AR letter. First thing, that will buckle their knees. And then he said, I will pound them with fury if they keep this up. But the threats went far beyond intimidation. [21:52] On November 7th, 2019, two weeks before that investor dinner in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, a woman named Tina Algretta picked up her phone. Algretta owned Algretta Electrical Corp. on Long Island. She'd borrowed money from power funding, approximately $367,000 total. And she'd already paid back roughly $700,000. But her business hit a rough patch, and she called Joe Mack to ask for help with repayment terms. [22:32] According to her testimony at Laforte's sentencing hearing, and corroborated by FBI exhibit M11, his response was this, Do you want to take this to the streets? We'll take this to the streets. I'm going to put a bomb in your car, and when you turn it on, it's going to blow, and you're going to go with it. He also threatened to kidnap her five-year-old twins. As she testified, he knew I had twins. I had children that were small at the time. They were five years old in kindergarten. He asked her if she'd ever heard of cement shoes. We'll tie them in cement shoes, she quoted him. You'll go to the bottom of the Hudson River. Figure it out. I want to be paid. After that call, according to her testimony. [23:30] Tina remote-started her car every single day. She wouldn't turn the key herself. She wouldn't let her children or anyone else get in her car first. Her husband developed such severe stress that he suffered a gastrointestinal bleed. And during his hospitalization, he had a stroke. [23:54] On December 10th, 2019, Tina called the FBI. The violence wasn't limited to phone threats and in-person confrontations. According to FBI agent Murray's testimony, par funding had industrialized harassment. They called it the bluffs. The collections team scoured Facebook and social media for personal contacts of delinquent merchants and then mailed letters to those contacts falsely stating the merchant had defaulted on a loan. The recipient might be the merchant's mother or their priest or their children's school principal. Agent Murray testified, this was probably almost the most egregious thing that these merchants had to experience. All of a sudden, everybody, their neighbor or their landlord or their neighboring businesses, now knows that they're quote, unquote, a deadbeat. PAR funding needed to install an extra server to handle the volume of outgoing bluff letters. [25:10] The intimidation campaign extended even to the lawyers trying to hold PAR funding accountable. According to court filings and testimony referenced at sentencing, Attorney Justin Proper, who'd represented defrauded borrowers, found a dead rat placed on the mailbox of his suburban home. Shane Heskin, the lawyer who'd hired the private investigator with the spy camera and whom LaForte called his arch-nemesis. Found the word prey cut from a magazine and taped to his mailbox. [25:52] These incidents were referenced in court proceedings as part of the pattern of intimidation. No one had been criminally convicted for them. Separately, according to court filings, SCC attorney Amy Riggle Berlin found her Jeep Wrangler covered in what appeared to be blood. In the summer of 2021, an incident documented as uncharged conduct with no criminal conviction for the act. There were other victims of threats. Aaron Boshart, a grocery store owner in Montana, had a par-funding representative visit his home. And according to court documents, the visitor casually mentioned Boschardt's daughter on a college track scholarship. [26:47] And what a good athlete she was, and how he should keep an eye on her. No explicit threat was needed. [26:59] Cara DiPietro owned a kitchen outfitting firm in Maryland and fell behind on payments. and Laforte texted her, get your fat ass up and call me. And when she later became a government witness, an anonymous caller using a spoofed number told her according to court filings and her testimony at sentencing. We're coming after you. We're going to split your head open. She told investigators, I was really scared. I think about it every single day multiple times a day. [27:41] While Joey was visiting merchants and Laforte was threatening borrowers, the investors still believed everything's fine. That belief rested on one thing. The books. In 2018, according to court records and the Rowan University academic analysis, Parr Funding hired an outside auditor, Friedman LLP, to audit its financial statements. And Friedman completed the audit, it showed losses. And Laforte demanded a new version. According to court findings, Friedman produced one. This version showed a $1.2 million profit. But it came with something else, an adverse opinion, a disclaimer stating that the results did not present Par Funding's financial position fairly and were not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Laforte took the version of showing a profit, and he buried the adverse opinion. [28:51] That doctored audit was shared with investors. The disclaimer, the part that said the numbers weren't real, that was never mentioned. As the receivership's attorney later described in open court testimony, that adverse opinion letter never saw the light of day. [29:13] Meanwhile, according to the government's sentencing memoranda, Laforte's accountants in Colorado. Rodney Ermel and Kenneth Bacon They had allegedly helped hide approximately $20 million In Laforte's personal income through fabricated Shareholder loans and false bad debt deductions On his tax returns, Laforte and McKellen claimed Florida residency While living in Pennsylvania Dodging $1.6 million in state taxes, And when Laforte emailed his wife to tell her Their total wealth was $795 million According to documents entered into evidence, Her response was three words This is impressive. [30:09] On August 7, 2020, the SEC filed a civil complaint and obtained an emergency asset freeze. Appointed a receiver named Ryan Stumphauser out of Miami. And that same day, the FBI executed simultaneous search warrants on three Laforte properties. FBI, open up! At the Pennsylvania home, agents found more than $590,000 in cash. At the Poconos vacation property, another $595,000 in cash. And at the Jupiter, Florida house, more than $1.2 million in cash. Total cash seized in a single day, over $2.5 million. [31:00] And the guns. Under Laforte's bed, an AR-15 military-style rifle. In a closet, two shotguns. In every nightstand drawer and desk drawer, handguns. Seven loaded firearms total. And Joseph Laforte was a convicted felon. [31:20] And according to federal law, he could not legally possess a single round of ammunition. He told agents the guns, they all belonged to his wife. That claim was undermined, according to the pre-trial detention memo. When the FBI produced recordings of Laforte bragging to undercover agents about the arsenal at his lake house and inviting them to go shooting. The felon in possession charge came first, three years before the fraud indictment. It may have been what broke the investigation wide open. [31:59] As the receiver dug into Parr Funding's books, a pattern emerged that went far beyond the Ponzi mechanics. According to testimony from the receiver's representative at sentencing, Laforte had been funneling investors' money to a group of borrowers that the receivership team called the Exception Portfolio. [32:22] These weren't struggling small businesses. No, these were convicted criminals. The receiver described in open court Laforte's advanced tens of millions of dollars to a group of merchants that included a convicted bank fraudster, a convicted securities fraudster, a convicted healthcare fraudster, and an individual who's been charged with tax fraud. When the SEC took over in 2020, this group made up well over 50% of PAR funding's accounts receivable. The largest single borrower was a man named Stephen Odzer, approximately $93 million in outstanding loans. [33:09] Odzer had a prior federal bank fraud conviction for defrauding three banks of $16 million, a conviction that was subsequently pardoned by presidential action. And despite that public record, Laforte extended tens of millions to him. At his September 2024 guilty plea, Laforte admitted receiving approximately $9 million in what he characterized as unreported cash kickbacks from Odzer over several years. Allegations against Odzer that have not resulted in criminal charges against him in this case. The business was, as one observer put it, a fraud inside a fraud. [33:58] For the next two and a half years, receiver Ryan Stumphauser and his attorney, Alfano, worked to dismantle Laforte's empire, tracing money, cataloging assets, pursuing recovery for investors. Laforte out on bond did not go quietly. In January 2023, according to the government's sentencing memo, Laforte beat a 76-year-old former merchant client in a South Philadelphia restaurant, kicking and hitting the man while accusing him, using the memo's own language, of being a rat. And when confronted later, Laforte characterized the beating as a little boot in the rear end. But the most significant act of violence was still to come, and it was planned. [34:57] February 28, 2023, the morning begins at Joseph Laforte's estate in Pennsylvania. His brother James has slept there the night before. According to the government's detailed sentencing memo for James Laforte, the brothers drove separate cars into Center City, Philadelphia. They met with Joseph's former criminal defense attorney And they spent time in a cigar lounge A few blocks from what would become the crime scene, Joseph then took James to a youth clothing store, and James bought a second winter coat. He was already wearing one. [35:40] Joseph moved James' car to a parking garage, where it would remain hidden for days. And then Joseph drove home to his home in Pennsylvania, and he logged into a virtual SEC court hearing, a civil receivership proceeding. Attorney Alfano was on the call, representing the receiver. And the moment the hearing ended, Joseph called James. And that call lasted less than one minute. Prosecutors argued the timing was not coincidental. The content of the call was never established in evidence. But the sequence told its own story. [36:28] James LaForte walked towards Alfano's law office on 19th Street. He had surveilled which entrance Alfano used, and as Alfano later testified, if you're on the street standing in front of one entrance, you literally cannot see the other entrance. So how did James LaForte know to be waiting for me on 19th Street and not on Market Street? The answer is because the Lefortes have been stalking me for a while. [36:59] Alfano emerged from the building. James ran up from behind and struck him over the head with a hard object, later identified as possibly a flashlight recovered from the scene. Alfano went down, bleeding. Seven staples in his scalp. James ran, ditched the bloodied second coat in a trash receptacle at 20th and Market Street. And as Alfano testified He also avoided the spectacle of running around town With my blood on his jacket, That evening, according to phone records Cited in the government's memo Joseph and James spoke twice more A total of 21 minutes, Whatever they discussed, it wasn't enough Because two days later, James made the calls to Abianzo's family, the threats about the girls. [37:59] You know, I think I need to stop here for a moment because in all of my years investigating financial criminals, Ponzi schemers, embezzlers, corporate fraudsters, they lie, they manipulate, they steal. But they almost never do this. They almost never send someone to fracture a lawyer's skull because that lawyer is getting too close to returning their victim's money. Judge Kearney, at James LaForte's sentencing, called it a cowardly, fuggery act. I think the word cowardly is exactly right. LaForte sat at home, logged into a Zoom hearing, confirmed the target was on the call, then made one phone call, under a minute, and his brother did the rest. The evidence, as I read it, shows someone who managed street violence by remote control. [38:55] This wasn't a financial crime anymore. This was something entirely different. [39:05] Days after the Alfano attack, James Laforte used a spoofed number to call Perry Abanezio, a former PAR funding insider who'd become a cooperating witness and his wife. According to the government's memo, he said, retract those lies or were coming for the girls and referenced the streets where the adult daughters lived. On March 6, 2023, federal agents arrested James LaForte and in his pocket, they found a handwritten index card. On it, cell phone numbers, and family members' names and addresses, organized and handwritten. Was it a physical hit list? Well, it was in his pocket in 2023. Investigators also found James LaForte's handwritten diary. In it, a message to his newborn son. Me and Uncle Joe are putting things back together. You will see we are fighting the SEC in government. We'll talk about that when you're ready. [40:30] The original 133-page criminal indictment was unsealed in May 2023. An amended version in February 2024 added RICO charges in what prosecutors called the most serious charge we could bring against these defendants and the most righteous charge. On September 11, 2024, both Laforte brothers appeared before the judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. And when the judge asked Joseph Laforte if he'd used another name, He said, Joe Mack. And when asked if he did what the government said he did, he answered with one word. Yes. By October 2024, the CFO followed Joseph Johnny Excel Barletta, a man with no college degree, who once competed as a professional food eater at the 2013 Wing Bowl. He pleaded guilty to RICO charges. He was the man who'd fudged the numbers, cooked the books, and manipulated the financial statements at Leforte's discretion. [41:46] And on his personal laptop, seized by federal agents, were two receipts. Spreadsheets tracking in real time every dollar owed to every investor. PAR funding, $366 million. Capital source, $200 million. Fast advance funding, $7 million. Totaling over $404 million. The man running the books knew exactly how deep the hole was to the dollar. And remember that man in the King of Prussia ballroom, the one with that key fob that he bought on Amazon? Well, he was a private investigator hired by an attorney named Shane Heskin, who represented defrauded borrowers. And that key fob was a spy camera recording everything. Laforte's false claims about his own investment, his boasts about profitability, all of it captured by a $49 device in a room full of people who believed every word coming out of his mouth. And that footage was used in the criminal indictment. [43:11] Hey, if you're still with me, and I hope you are, because the sentencing hearing is coming, and it's what you need to hear. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what comes next from True Crime Unheard. Remember, if you want the court documents on future cases, you have to be subscribed before the show drops. And you can subscribe at truecrimeunheard.com. [43:37] Now, that spy camera footage It was about to land in the hands of federal prosecutors. [43:49] March 26, 2025, the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, a hearing that would last 10 hours and take up 395 pages in a court transcript. [44:03] At 9.22 a.m., the proceedings began, and the first witness was called. Tina, she took the witness stand and described in open court what it was like to hold her breath every time she turned her car on for three long years. She described the threats to kidnap her kindergarten-age twins. She described the cement shoes. She described what happened to her husband. And according to the sentencing transcript, the judge listened. And then he addressed Laforte directly. You threatened a mother of six-year-old twins she remote started her car thereafter you threatened her that her six-year-old twins would not be there at school one day. [44:52] Receiver attorney Alfano, the same man who had been skullstruck and fractured his skull, took the stand. He testified that when he called the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, he found 1,800 confessions of judgment filed by HAR funding in 2018 and 2019 alone. Out of approximately 9,000 total transactions, proof of a 20% default rate that Laforte had been telling investors was less than 1%. Alfano described Laforte's victims in the plainest terms the court would hear that day. He preyed upon senior citizens. He duped a plumber from the Northeast, a baggage handler from West Philadelphia, a carpet installer from Delaware County. Out of their respective life savings. And he added, I've studied years of his emails and text messages, and I could tell you there is no sincerity in him. [45:57] Assistance United States Attorney Matthew Newcomer addressed Laforte's allocution, during which Laforte had described himself as a pain in the neck. Newcomer's response according to the transcript Pain in the neck? Is that how you've described a $400 million financial fraud extorting at least a dozen victims and attacking a member of the court being a pain in the neck? He was a menace And he continued He didn't care about those old victims He didn't care about these victims He cares about no victims He only cares about himself. Newcomer then made the point that defined the entire case. There's no nuance in hiding your name to hide your past fraudulent activity. It would have made sure no investor would have invested in par funding. Not a single investor would have invested if they knew he was a convicted fraudster. No one. At one point, according to the transcript, the judge asked Laforte, why the company had to keep going. Why couldn't he stop? And LaForte's answer? It's my ego. It's my ego. I want to be the biggest and the best. [47:27] He said it a second time, unprompted. I'm self-centered. I have a big ego, and I wanted to be the biggest and the best. And the judge said, well, that's the answer. And then you just blew by every stop sign. [47:43] And, you know, it's too dangerous for you. It's your dopamine. And every time I see cases like this, it's frustrating because people are so talented, and they use it for the wrong reasons. [47:59] At 7.14 p.m., after 10 hours of testimony, the judge pronounced the sentence. 186 months, 15 and a half years in federal prison. Restitution, almost $315 million. Forfeiture of about $121 million. Plus a private jet, a Charles Schwab investment account. Six firearms and 72 rounds of ammunition. And Laforte's last words in the courtroom, according to the transcript, Thank you, Your Honor. I appreciate everything. He was cut off. He was remanded to the custody of the United States Marshal. According to the sentencing judgment, among the forfeited assets was that Cessna citation, Sovereign 680, private jet. Tale number November 789, Mike Julia. A convicted felon who had been on supervised release when he started the company had been flying on a corporate jet bought with investors' money. Court records showed he'd spent $2.1 million on art in a single month. [49:15] His final statement before the judge interrupted him included this. I realize that all great men are not good men. And I'm going to try to move on to embrace a new path to try to be someone good. Since any life when viewed from the inside of a jail cell is a series of defeats. [49:40] James LaForte was sentenced on March 13, 2025, 137 months. 11 1⁄2 years. The judge called the Alfano attack cowardly thuggery and told him, you have no respect for the law whatsoever. According to the federal indictment out of the Eastern District of New York, a separate case, James LaForte was formerly identified as an alleged maid member of the Gambino crime family, and that case was pending as of the research date for this episode. Renato Gino Joey, the prison cellmate who became the enforcer, was sentenced in April of 2025, 18 months at a low-security medical facility because by the time of his sentencing, he was wheelchair dependent. He had cooperated with the prosecutors and his testimony was called invaluable. CFO Joseph Barletta, 66 months, five and a half years, restitution, $302 million. Laforte's wife, Lisa, the nominal CEO, pleaded guilty to tax fraud. She was sentenced in October 2025 to one day in prison and 60 days of house arrest, the last prosecution in the PAR funding case. [51:09] At her husband's sentencing, Laforte had said, Her only crime was marrying me. [51:21] Here's the part of the story that almost never happens. According to the SEC receivership's February 2026 report, $196 million has been returned to investors. The first checks arrived in January 2025, more than four years after the asset freeze. A second distribution of approximately $97 million was approved in November 2025, and for most investors, the expected recovery will be between 80% and 98% of their principal. For a Ponzi scheme, that outcome is nearly unheard of. And it happened because the receiver and his team spent five years at a cost of over $60 million in legal fees, dismantling the fraud and chasing every recoverable dollar. Joseph Brock, who invested $200,000 and followed the case through hundreds of court filings, received his first distribution in January 2025. And he told the Philadelphia Inquirer he felt numb. By November with nearly full recovery in sight he said something else sounds like Christmas to me. [52:47] Not everyone got their Christmas. The Marcus family, the Guile family, investors who came in late or through certain fund structures, some received nothing. And Laforte's court-ordered restitution of $314 million? While in prison, his minimum payment is $25 per quarter. That's $100 a year. And at that rate, it would take 3.1 million years to pay it off. Yeah, it's not going to happen. U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said it plainly. Joe Laforte is a career grifter. The judge said it differently. That tsunami of go-get-it has created a lot of victims. [53:43] Joseph Laforte wrote an email to his lawyers years before sentencing that tells you everything you need to know. I'm a winner, he wrote. I like to win at all costs, always. That's all that matters to me is winning, nothing else. [54:04] For 1,600 people, that philosophy cost half a billion dollars. For Tina, it cost three years of holding her breath every time she started her car. For Alfano, it cost seven staples in his skull. And for some investors, it cost their full retirement. And for Joseph Laforte, the man who wanted to be the biggest and the best, It costs him the next 15 and a half years of his life. He's currently incarcerated in the federal prison system. [54:43] This has been True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I'm Steve Rode. If this case got to you the way it got to me, you share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. If you want future detailed case files, court documents, and source materials, be sure you've subscribed to the email list at truecrimeunheard.com. And if you got an extra 10 seconds, hey, I would be honored if you'd leave me a rating or review on whatever platform you're listening on. It helps other people find these stories. And one more thing. If someone ever promises you a return that sounds too good to be true, and they won't tell you their real name, run. Until next time, stay safe. Stay curious. [55:42] Stay subscribed. Oh, and by all means, stay awesome. [55:50] Yeah. Bye.