07/09/2026
Federal regulators say Leor Moshe used Capital Funding ASAP to raise approximately $47 million from investors, promising returns as high as 53%. The SEC alleges that Capital Funding made few, if any, legitimate loans, while at least $11 million was misappropriated and some later investor funds were used to pay earlier investors. Moshe has since pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
What makes this case especially relevant to the merchant cash advance industry is that investors were allegedly shown a financing business as the economic engine behind those returns.
And we have seen versions of this before.
MJ Capital Funding in Pompano Beach, Florida, also raised money from investors who were told their capital would be used to fund merchant cash advances. Prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme totaled approximately $190.7 million. Former CEO Johanna Michely Garcia pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The government said Garcia and others also recruited people to solicit investors and paid them commissions.
Then there was 1 Global Capital in Hallandale Beach. That case was different because 1 Global actually operated a substantial commercial-finance business making MCA-style advances. But prosecutors said investors were misled about the company’s financial condition and how their money was being used. More than 3,400 investors across 42 states were affected, and former chairman Carl Ruderman ultimately pleaded guilty in a $250 million securities-fraud scheme. He agreed to the statutory maximum five-year sentence. Several other executives, lawyers and intermediaries were also prosecuted in connection with the operation.
There have been other variations on this same idea: raise outside investor money, point to MCA or small-business financing as the source of the returns, and make it difficult for investors to independently verify what is actually sitting in the portfolio.
The issue isn’t that MCA itself is fraudulent.
The issue is when MCA becomes the cover story for investment fraud.
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