Woman pleads guilty to fleecing investors of $1M

A TEXAS WOMAN pleaded guilty of fleecing 35 investors in a $1 million Ponzi scheme.

Nemelee Liwanag Jiao, 47, claimed to represent Shepherd's Light Learning Center and Lord of Peace, two nonprofit schools in the Philippines, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas.

Nemelee Liwanag Jiao

Jiao pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to one count of wire fraud. She possibly faces a maximum statutory penalty for wire fraud of 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Jiao will remain on bond pending her sentencing, which is scheduled for April 4, 2018.

According to the plea agreement factual resume, beginning in February 2009 and continuing through September 2016, Jiao devised a scheme to attract individuals to invest in promissory notes purportedly issued by Shepherd’s Light Learning Center and Lord of Peace Learning Center, two nonprofit schools located in the Philippines. 

But instead she used the funds for her personal benefit. Jiao raised at least $1,000,000 from at least 35 investors, many of whom were fellow nurses — Filipinos, Africans, Indians and Koreans.

She used the money she raised from investors to buy herself a country club membership and to cover other personal expenses, federal investigators say. Jiao notarized most of the investment contracts to make them seem legitimate, authorities say. Investors were to write checks and wire funds to bank accounts controlled by her._________________________________________________________________________________