A New York-based entrepreneur has pleaded guilty to fraudulently soliciting investment in his startup tequila business.
Joseph Cimino pleaded to one count each of securities and wire fraud. Authorities say he overstated the sales and finances of 6 Degree Tequila, an artisan brand he was trying to establish in upstate New York.
The indictment charged Cimino with raising nearly a million dollars from 2014 to 2018 by inflating sales and the amount of existing investments. He allegedly stated sales figures that were five or more times the actual ones, claimed investments from “angels” who did not exist, and in one case claimed sales more than a year before he actually had any. He allegedly used much of the capital he did raise for personal expenses.
"Through falsely inflating capital, misleading investors, and lying about other aspects of his tequila company, Cimino, as alleged, raised nearly $1 million in furtherance of his fraudulent scheme," William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said in a statement at the time of the indictment.
