TOMS RIVER, N.J. (VINnews)-A Toms River businessman pleaded guilty Thursday to operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly 100 investors, many from the Orthodox Jewish community, out of more than $47 million.

Leor Moshe, 43, admitted to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Trenton, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a potential fine of up to twice the amount of the illicit gains, or as much as $94 million. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

Prosecutors said Moshe used his Lakewood-based company, Capital Funding ASAP, to solicit investments between 2019 and 2023. He promised returns as high as 53% on short-term business loans to victims who largely had little prior investing experience.

Instead of investing the money, Moshe used funds from new investors to repay earlier ones and diverted about $11 million for personal expenses, including gambling debts, home renovations, mortgage payments and car loans, court records show.

“The defendant turned the trust of his own religious community into a tool for fraud, exploiting personal relationships to fuel a massive Ponzi scheme,” U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said.

Court documents detailed several transactions. In one case, an investor sent $380,000 to the company on Feb. 5, 2021; three days later, Moshe transferred $88,000 to his personal cryptocurrency account. In January 2023, he received $350,000 from two investors and the same day paid $262,000 to earlier investors. The following month, after receiving $2 million tied to a promised 53% return on a Jackson property investment, he paid $820,000 to five previous investors over the next three days.

An attorney for Moshe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.