A 65-year-old Orlando, Fla. man will be sentenced in Septemberafter he admitted to operating a Swedish-based credit union toswindle more than $17 million from 400 investors, according tofederal prosecutors.

Samuel J. Cusumano Jr. pleaded guilty June 24 to wire fraud.

During his plea hearing, Cusumano admitted that between 2007 and2009, as board chair of Storehouse Credit Union, he promoted theinternational credit union as a high yield investmentopportunity through misleading presentations and materials.

Using the credit union's website, he fraudulently inducedinvestors from across the U.S., including Florida, Canada, GreatBritain and Australia, to transfer funds to investment accountsunder Cusumano's control by misrepresenting the rates of returngenerated by the financial institution, federal prosecutorssaid.

Cusumano claimed that Storehouse CU used professional currencytraders when, in fact, he personally executed all trades from hisOrlando home, investing primarily in the Foreign Currency ExchangeMarket.

Although the financial institution was losing money, Cusumanoproduced fraudulent financial statements to convince investors thatStorehouse CU was reaching or exceeding the high rates of returnthat were promised to them.

He promised investors their accounts would earn monthly returnsof more than 5%.

But when investors discovered they were unable to withdraw theirfunds due to trading losses, a financial audit was conducted.

The audit revealed that investor funds had been depleted,earnings had been overstated and Cusumano had used a large portionof investors' funds to pay personal expenses, according to courtdocuments.

Cusumano faces up to 20 years in federal prison. His sentencinghearing is scheduled for Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court inGainesville, Fla.