Turlock Accountant Pleads Guilty in Ponzi Scheme: Nearly 90 Investors Put In About $11.03 Million, $7.19 Million Still Owed at Collapse
Antonio Honorato Silveira, 50, a tax preparer and accountant from Turlock in Stanislaus County, California, pleaded guilty on October 26 to wire fraud in federal court. U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California announced the plea: Silveira promised annual returns of 13% to 17% for investing clients' money in the stock market, and from 2019 to 2025 about 89 investors gave him about $11.03 million; when the scheme collapsed in 2025 he still owed investors about $7.19 million.
According to court documents, by no later than June 2011 Silveira began accepting money from clients to invest on their behalf, memorializing promised annual returns of 13% to 17% in signed promissory notes and guarantees, with investors giving him full discretion over stock trades. He was an unsuccessful trader who consistently lost money and also diverted investor funds to pay his own expenses. By 2017 he wrote to three investors: "I no longer have any money, it was all lost. Doesn't appear to be any new investors in sight either." He added: "This whole experience has been terrible and I apologize." Despite that, he continued to solicit new investors.
From 2019 to 2025, approximately 89 investors gave Silveira about $11.03 million while he knew he could not pay the promised returns. Over that period he had only two profitable years and five losing years, and his losses in each losing year exceeded the gains of any single profitable year. To cover up the losses, he used about $3.84 million of investor funds to make payments falsely portrayed as investment returns. When the scheme collapsed in 2025, he owed investors about $7.19 million, and more than 25 investors suffered substantial hardships, including lost retirement savings or college funds, delayed retirements, and the sale of a home.
IRS Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Fogg is prosecuting the case. Silveira is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd on February 8, 2027, and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison; the actual sentence will be determined by the court after considering the federal Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Fresno 的 Robert E. Coyle 联邦法院大楼（加州东区联邦法院 Fresno 分院）。Cadk 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经维基共享资源。 / The Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse in Fresno, California. By Cadk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
