South Jersey Man Sentenced to Over Six Years in Money Laundering Scheme

A Laurel Springs man has been sentenced to six years and two months in prison for defrauding an investor out of approximately $1.2 million, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced Wednesday evening.

Giovanni Arena, 58, was previously convicted of 15 counts of mail fraud, eight counts of money laundering, three counts of failure to file income tax returns and one count of tampering with a witness. Arena was convicted in November of 2013 following a seven-day trial.

Arena defrauded a single investor out of $1.2 million, saying the money would be invested in a pizza shop. He then laundered the money, failed to report it to the IRS and threatened the victim to keep quiet.

Arena was also sentenced to three years supervised release. He must pay $1,219,200 in restitution to the victim.

Arena, who had operated pizza restaurants in the past, enticed the victim to send checks and cash through the mail to invest in the purchase of a pizza shop in southern New Jersey, according to documents filed in the case and statements made in court.

Rather than using the money to buy a restaurant, Arena purchased luxury automobiles – including a Maserati Coupe and Chevrolet Camaro – gambled at Atlantic City casinos and paid his living expenses.

Arena lost more than $700,000 in four years gambling in Atlantic City.

During the trial, the jury watched surveillance video of the defendant buying in at a black jack table using $81,000 in cash he brought to the table in a shopping bag.

In addition, Arena willfully did not file his individual tax returns for 2006, 2007 and 2008, failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income to the IRS.

After federal agents executed search warrants on Arena’s property during the course of the investigation, Arena instructed the victim to lie to federal investigators. Arena made threatening statements, saying, “you better not put me in trouble because if you put me in trouble, I’ll put you in trouble.”

As part of his sentence, Arena must forfeit assets, including the Maserati and the Camaro.