Navin Xavier with Tamara Xavier, who got married at The Breakers in Palm Beach with some of the $1.2 million he got from the state of South Carolina. Photo: Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Navin Shankar Subramaniam Xavier, a Miramar businessman living in South Florida, has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a $30 million fraud.

Xavier, according to authorities, used a Ponzi scheme to rip off investors to the tune of $29 million. He also stole $1.5 million from the state of South Carolina by promising a financially hard-up region jobs that never arrived.

Xavier pleaded guilty to 15 counts of wire fraud last week in Miami’s U.S. District Court. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a $250,000 fine. He will also be ordered to pay restitution to his victims.

According to the Department of Justice, Xavier used several different aliases. The announcement of his plea lists “Shankar Subramaniam Xavier” and “Navin Xavier.” He has also used Navin Subramaniam, Subramaniam Xavier S. Navin, Navin Subramaniam-Xavier, Xavier Navin Subramaniam. Eviction notices from Tempe, Arizona, in February 2010 show him as “Navin Xavier” and from June 2010 in Tempe as “Navin Subrarmaniam.”

Sometime during that period he became the registered agent for a company called Essex Holdings, which he moved from Wellington to Miami Gardens. In September 2010, his Ponzi scheme began.

According to the plea agreement, Xavier forged a multitude of fake documents through Essex Holdings to trick investors in sugar shipping and Chilean iron ore mining. From the factual proffer statement:

For example, in or around December 2010, Investor A was provided with a letter on the purported letterhead of JP Morgan Chase Bank, N .A., indicating that Essex Holdings had purchased 125,000 metric tons of white sugar. This letter contained a forged signature and was not created by JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., and was used by defendant to give investors the false impression that Essex Holdings was a legitimate business operation.

Xavier claimed to have a doctorate in information technology from Nova Southeastern as well as an MBA from Tiffin University in Ohio and a bachelor’s in computer science and business management from the University of Minnesota. He didn’t earn the degrees, according to court documents.

The Ponzi scheme lasted from September 2010 through May 2014. Some of the $13 million Xavier transferred to foreign bank accounts was “related to potential iron ore or sugar mining activities,” the plea agreement said. But that wasn’t profitable, contrary to what Xavier told investors.