A FORMER director of Oxford City Football Club is facing criminal and civil charges over his alleged role in a $6.6m investment fraud.

Thomas Guerriero has been charged in the USA following allegations that claims more than 150 people were allegedly defrauded of $6.6m, the US Department of Justice said.

Mr Guerriero stepped down as a director of Oxford City Football Club – known as Oxford City (Trading) Ltd – the Marsh Lane club announced this weekend.

The club said that the 39-year-old American had resigned on Wednesday due to ill health.

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The resignation announcement came a day after it emerged Mr Guerriero, who signed up as a director with the club, Oxford City (Trading) Ltd in April 2013, and eight others had been accused in a US court of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. The Oxford Mail yesterday tried various ways of reaching Mr Guerriero, but no calls or emails were returned.

The charges relate to dealings by Florida-based Oxford City Football Club Inc, a company owned by Mr Guerriero, which took on a 49 per cent share of the UK football team business in 2013.

Parallel civil charges have been brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against US firm Oxford City Football Club Inc (OXFC) and Guerriero as its CEO, the US Department of Justice said. The SEC, which was established by the US Congress to monitor to protect investors and promote stability in the markets, on Friday announced fraud charges and a court-ordered asset freeze obtained against the American company.

In court documents in relation to the civil case, the SEC claimed: “From at least August 2013 to the present, defendants, under the guise of OXFC’s nominal legitimate businesses operated a classic ‘boiler room’ out of which they sold millions of shares of illegal unregistered offerings through several fraudulent practices designed to deceive investors concerning the value of the stock they were purchasing and the future profits they could realise.”

The complaint, submitted on December 10, said: “OXFC purportedly had a ‘professional sports portfolio’, which consisted of two soccer teams, the Oxford City Football Club, and the Oxford City Nomads that compete in the lower divisions of the English Football Association. OXFC also owns, or has owned ... at various times, a number of semi-pro indoor and outdoor soccer teams, as well as a basketball team. According to OXFC’s public filings, none of these teams have generated profits for OXFC.”

It added: “These operations served as the foundation for the defendants’ fraud, providing some level of legitimacy to OXFC such that defendants were able to induce millions of dollars of investment in OXFC through unregistered fraudulent means.”

The 31-page SEC complaint also claimed that the firm’s business plans projected five-year profits of “$7.4m from ‘our existing indoor arena’” and “$7.6million from ‘our existing Oxford City FC Stadium’”. In the document, The SEC went on to claim that in a business plan Mr Guerriero sent to potential investors, it was said that OXFC was a “131-year-old debt-free, diversified holding company”.

The SEC added: “The small amount of revenue OXFC generate from its 49 per cent ownership of the UK football club (from legitimate ticket sales, concessions, facilities rentals, and other activities) is eclipsed by OXFC’s expenses and Guerriero’s compensation. Furthermore, although the UK soccer club was 131 years old, Guerriero’s holding company was formed in 2013 and, in fact, had significant debt.”

The SEC asked for jury trial and said its investigation was ongoing. US court documents regarding the criminal charges, seen by the Oxford Mail, allege Mr Guerriero and eight others used “high-pressure, strong-armed tactics” to persuade people to invest in Mr Guerriero’s Florida-based company.

The papers claim as part of the alleged fraud, which was said to have taken place between July 2013 and July 2015, Mr Guerriero approved scripts for “trained sales agents” used when approaching investors. Court records claim that Guerriero and others made “false and fraudulent statements to investors” about the US company, which Guerriero had renamed as ‘Oxford City Football Club Inc’ in July 2013.

These, the indictment went on, included, among other things, claims that the company owned “100 per cent of the Oxford City Football Club team”, $90million of real estate and an online university that had 10,000 students enrolled.

Mr Guerriero is accused of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, two counts of tampering with a witness and one count of obstruction of justice, the indictment said.

All counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail, apart from obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum of five years imprisonment.

The Department of Justice added: “An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is innocent until proven guilty.”