Manalapan man sentenced to prison for bilking 14 people out of $1.2M

A disgraced Manalapan stock broker has been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for bilking 14 investors, some of them senior citizens, out of $1.2 million after he was permanently barred as a securities broker.

Anthony Mastroianni Jr., 49, was also sentenced for getting a fraudulent loan for more than $96,000 from a COVID emergency relief fund for distressed businesses.

In 2016, Mastroianni consented to being permanently barred as a securities broker by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark said.

From 2017 up until August 2022, he defrauded the 14 investors − one 82 years old and another 67 years old - by convincing them he could generate large profits for them through his company, Global Business Development &

Consulting Corp., according to a complaint. Rather than investing the money, he used it for rent, car payments, credit card bills and cash withdrawals, the complaint said.

Mastroianni filed a fraudulent application for the the $96,200 loan from the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Insurance Disaster Program, claiming to have $357,500 in gross receipts and an employee on the payroll, while he actually had no employees and less than half that amount in goods or services sold, according to the complaint. Mastroianni pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud on Sept. 13 before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in Trenton, who sentenced him.

He was originally charged with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud. Kirsch also sentenced Mastroianni to three years of supervised release and ordered him to repay $1.3 million in restitution.