Indictment charges three with investment fraud

A federal grand jury in Providence yesterday returned an indictment charging three men dealing with defrauding investors out of money that they had invested in three companies that the defendents controlled. The indictment alleges that the defendents, Vincent DiGiulio of North Kingstown, Robert Felleman of West Roxbury, Mass. and Robert Calestino of Cranston, deceived potential investors about the companies and then used more than $600,000 in investors’ money for their own purposes.



United States Attorney Margaret E. Curran, Charles S. Prouty, special agent in charge of the FBI, and Michael P. Lahey, agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigations Division, jointly announced a 22-count indictment.



The three companies involved in the alleged scheme are Lemon Tree, formed in 1996 for the purported purpose of selling frozen lemonade, Carribean Funding, a company formed for the purported purpose of financing property sales in the Carribean, and Millennium Group Holdings, purportedly a holding company for Lemon Tree, Carribean Funding and other companies.