San Diego, California – Carlos Manuel da Silva Santos, the founder and CEO of Ethos Asset Management, Inc., was sentenced Thursday to more than seven years in prison for orchestrating a widespread advance-fee loan fraud scheme that defrauded U.S. businesses out of over $17 million. U.S. District Judge Robert S. Huie, who handed down the 87-month sentence, called Santos’ actions “reprehensible.”
A Portuguese national, Santos pleaded guilty in January 2025 to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. He has been in custody since his November 2023 arrest at Newark Liberty International Airport upon arriving in the United States from abroad.
Operating out of San Diego, Ethos Asset Management falsely presented itself as a global financing firm that supported business ventures in exchange for upfront fees. In reality, Santos admitted, Ethos failed to deliver on its loan promises and instead used the upfront fees for unrelated payouts—including covering prior borrowers’ fees or funding unrelated disbursements…