Ponzi schemer 'King Perry' pleads guilty; had lived lavishly

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — The fraudster called himself "King Perry," and for a while he lived like royalty.

Perry Santillo masterminded a long-running investment scam that collected more than $115 million from 1,000 investors around the country, using some of the proceeds to fund a lavish lifestyle of cars, casino junkets and houses in multiple states, according to federal securities regulators.

At one point, Santillo threw himself a party at a Las Vegas club and had a song written for the occasion — the lyrics of which boasted that "King Perry" wears a "$10,000 suit everywhere he rides," the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint.

The Ponzi scheme eventually collapsed, and Santillo, of Rochester, New York, is likely to trade his fancy duds for prison attire when he is sentenced on criminal conspiracy and fraud charges.

Santillo appeared Monday in federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to plead guilty to a federal fraud charge, having already entered a guilty plea last month to similar charges in Rochester, New York. Each charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

Prosecutors say Santillo's victims include elderly people who lost their life savings.

"It is absolutely brazen theft occasioned by nothing other than greed," said U.S. Attorney David Freed of Pennsylvania, whose office is helping prosecute Santillo.

Santillo and his lawyer declined to comment Monday.

Between 2008 and 2018, according to court documents, Santillo and his alleged conspirators coaxed clients to cash in their retirement accounts and invest in sham companies under their control, using the money from newer investors to repay earlier investors.

To ensure a fresh supply of victims, Santillo and his confederates bought the businesses — and client lists — of a series of...