Ritter suffered a $500,000 loss in 2001 over a business venture unrelated to his accounting practice, but then covered his losses by defrauding clients of his practice. He solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in “loans” from clients, telling them the money would be used in real estate ventures, according to statements and information presented in court. From then on, he ran a Ponzi scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission said, using clients’ money to cover previous loan payments and personal expenses. This continued until 2012.

He also embezzled funds which clients had placed in his trust, such as a large chunk of a $650,000 payment from one family, which had given it to him with explicit instructions to use some of it to cover several family members’ debts and keep the rest until further notice. He embezzled at least $530,000 of it.

Ritter, 69, pled guilty last week to three counts of wire fraud and faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each count, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from his scheme, and a maximum of three years of supervised release.

“Alan Ritter used his trusted role as an accountant to hatch a fraudulent loan scheme that quickly grew into a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. He leaves many victims, whom he knew personally, impoverished in the wake of his fraud. With his plea today, Ritter will now be held to account for his crimes,” said Preet Bharara, the Manhattan US attorney.