3 Admit Swindling Investors

Loan shark Daniel Mondavano, his ex-wife Rose and son Dennis pleaded guilty today to tax fraud and conspiracy charges for swindling $4 million from investors by promising lavish profits and threatening bodily harm.

The Mondavanos, former San Fernando Valley residents who moved to Arizona when their investment scheme collapsed, managed to coax at least $4 million from 60 to 70 investors between 1981 and 1984, said Martin Weinstein, an attorney with the criminal section of the Department of Justice’s tax division in Washington. They lived “high on the hog for a few years” by luring investments from victims, funneling the money through several firms, making small payments to investors and keeping most of it for themselves, Weinstein said.