DETROIT – A Southfield investment advisor who earlier this year pleaded guilty to running a $13 million Ponzi scheme that raised funds from several municipalities, a school district, a bank and a credit union serving churches, on Tuesday was sentenced to 10 years behind bars and ordered to pay $12.9 million in restitution.
Dante DeMiro, 44, claimed to be investing funds in certificates of deposit but instead used the proceeds, including $396,000 in four $99,000 CDs bought by United Services CU of Des Moines, Iowa, to buy personal items, gamble and make loans to several individuals and a local jewelry store. The $11 million credit union was chartered in 1955 to serve ministers, family members and churches of the North Iowa Conference (of Methodist churches).
Other victims of the scheme included Bank @lantic, a Virginia savings bank that was once a credit union, which lost almost $800,000.
DeMiro also sold the bogus CDs to Michigan’s Lapeer County, Mona Shores Public Schools in Muskegon, and Comstock Township near Kalamazoo, through his two investment vehicles, MuniVest Financial Group and MuniVest Services LLC.
