DETROIT – A Southfield investment adviser on Thursday was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he stole approximately $10 million from investors, including several municipalities, a school district, a bank and a credit union serving churches.
Dante DeMiro, 43, founder and managing director of MuniVest Financial Group and MuniVest Services LLC, is accused of falsely promising clients, including United Services CU in Des Moines, Iowa, he would purchase millions of dollars in certificates of deposit. But officials said he did not buy the CDs and instead used the money to make loans to a local jewelry store and repay earlier investors of the scheme.
DeMiro, according to the indictment, ran a massive Ponzi scheme since at least March 2009 that robbed taxpayers from Lapeer County to the Mona Shores Public Schools in Muskegon, and Comstock Township near Kalamazoo.
To further the scheme, DeMiro would fax or e-mail clients computer "screen shots" or investment summary reports that purportedly detailed their investments in CDs at various banks, according to the affidavit. But he never bought the CDs, according to issuers contacted by the FBI.
