NJ wedding photographer allegedly scammed dozens — including own family — out of $1M

A New Jersey wedding photographer scammed dozens of people, including his own friends and family, out of $1 million in a sham investment scheme — and instead used the money on an Audi, gambling and travel, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

Vincent Villafane — a photographer and graphic designer from Ford, NJ — allegedly tricked his victims into investing tens of thousands of dollars each into scarce computer graphic cards for gaming laptops, claiming he could sell them for more than double what they were purchased at, federal prosecutors said.

His victims included elderly people, public employees like police officers and nurses, family members, friends and acquaintances — many of whom “entrusted Villafane with large portions of their savings,” according to the Brooklyn Federal Court indictment.

Villafane told them “he was connected with a manufacturer overseas who would sell him graphics cards at low wholesale prices, and that he would then resell the cards at a consideration markup due to a purported global chip shortage,” the indictment charges.

He said he could buy certain cards for $1,500 each and then sell them for $3,700 a pop.

Another time, he said he could buy individual cards for $1,100 and resell them for $2,600 each, the court papers claim.

While allegedly carrying out the scheme, starting in December 2021 through May 2023, Villafane frequently made his victims sign investor contracts and would email and text them documents “purporting to be investment materials,” the indictment claims.

But the investment funds were actually used “for his personal benefit including for general living expenses, gambling and online sports betting, entertainment, travel and luxury purchases,” the filing alleges.

The accused scammer would take trips to Florida using cash from the purported investments, a law enforcement source said.

In many cases, he would “immediately” spend the money on himself and “no funds or profits were returned to the investors,” the court papers allege.

For example, on June 4, 2022, one Staten Island victim gave him $16,000 to invest.

That same day Villafane put an “all-cash down payment of $26,500 for an Audi luxury car,” the filing claims.

Villafane ended up losing the Audi SUV because he couldn’t make the car payments for the other half of its cost, the source said.

He allegedly scammed roughly 40 people — including his father-in-law — most of whom lived on Staten Island, the source said.

When investors “demanded their money back, Villafane provided fabricated excuses, including telling several victims that [he] could not repay them because the IRS had frozen his accounts” — which was a lie, the indictment claims.

In some cases, Villafane partially repaid his victims but in many cases the checks he issued to investors would bounce back, the filing charges.

One of his victims lost over $115,000 “as a result of Villafane’s fraudulent scheme,” the court papers allege.

Villafane was arrested Thursday morning by NYPD financial crimes and the secret service, according to a law enforcement source.

He was charged with wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions over $10,000 and he faces up to 30 years behind bars if convicted on both counts.

Villafane was due to appear in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon.

His criminal defense attorney didn’t immediately return a request for comment.