By Dean J. Condoleo
The Modesto Bee
(TNS)
A 50-year-old Turlock, CA, accountant pleaded guilty Monday to federal wire fraud after operating a years-long Ponzi scheme that left investors owed more than $7 million, according to federal prosecutors.
Antonio Honorato Silveira admitted to running an investment scheme in which he promised clients annual returns of 13% to 17%. Instead, he lost money in the stock market and used funds from new investors to pay earlier ones, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
Between 2019 and 2025, about 89 investors entrusted Silveira with over $11 million. By the time the scheme collapsed in 2025, he owed investors approximately $7.2 million, prosecutors said.
More than 25 investors suffered significant financial hardships, including the loss of retirement savings and college funds, delayed retirements and the sale of a home, according to prosecutors.
How did the investment scheme operate?
Silveira worked as a tax preparer and accountant before he began accepting money from clients to invest on their behalf by June 2011, according to court documents cited by federal prosecutors.
He promised investors annual returns of between 13% and 17%, formalizing those agreements through signed promissory notes and guarantees.
Clients authorized Silveira to invest their money in the stock market at his discretion.
But Silveira consistently lost money through unsuccessful stock trades and diverted investor funds to cover his personal expenses, prosecutors said.
By 2017, his financial troubles had grown severe enough that he acknowledged his losses in correspondence with three investors.
“I no longer have any money, it was all lost,” Silveira wrote, according to prosecutors. “Doesn’t appear to be any new investors in sight either.”
He also apologized to the investors. “This whole experience has been terrible and I apologize,” he wrote.
Despite acknowledging the losses, Silveira continued soliciting new investors.
From 2019 through 2025, Silveira made money trading stocks in only two years, losing money in the other five, prosecutors said. His losses during each unprofitable year exceeded his gains from any single profitable year.
Rather than disclose those losses, Silveira used approximately $3.84 million in investor funds to make payments to other investors, falsely representing the payments as legitimate investment returns.
The practice is characteristic of a Ponzi scheme, in which money collected from investors is used to pay earlier investors rather than being generated through legitimate investment profits.
Silveira’s scheme collapsed in 2025.
What happens next?
Silveira is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 8, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, although his actual sentence will depend on federal sentencing guidelines and other factors considered by the judge.
The IRS Criminal Investigation division investigated the case.
Photo credit: iPicture/Pixabay
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© 2026 The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.). Visit www.modbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: accountant, Accounting, guilty pleas, investors, ponzi, Ponzi scheme, tax preparer, wire fraud
