The 56-year-old founder of a private equity fund was charged Tuesday with defrauding hundreds of investors out of approximately $6.5 million through unsecured promissory notes over a four-year period.

Mario Giovanni Santarelli of Laguna Niguel solicited hundreds of investors nationwide between June 2020 and June 2024 to invest between $25,000 and $500,000 in unsecured promissory notes, claiming the funds would support real estate projects, Broadway shows and cryptocurrency ventures, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

Santarelli promised monthly high-yield interest rates of approximately 12% to 15% over a seven-year period, allegedly using webinars to assure investors that the promissory notes were backed by diversified assets under management,

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