Joseph Neal Sanberg agreed to plead guilty to carrying out a $248 million scheme to defraud investors and lenders and admitted two felony counts of wire fraud. He faces a likely lengthy prison sentence under a plea deal. Sanberg co-founded a Los Angeles-based digital bank that once held a $2 billion valuation and attracted prominent backers. Sanberg was widely known for anti-poverty efforts in California, including funding a failed 2024 minimum wage ballot measure and promoting a state Earned Income Tax Credit through community outreach. He grew up in Villa Park, attended Servite High School, studied at Harvard, and previously worked on Wall Street before focusing on socially minded startups.
Sanberg grew up in Villa Park and attended Servite High School, later describing the all-male Catholic school which accepted students of all faiths as being the place where his values were shaped. He moved on from Orange County to Harvard to Wall Street, where he built a fortune from early investments in companies like Blue Apron. Sanberg later said he ultimately found Wall Street exciting but hollow.
An Orange County entrepreneur and investor known for his crusade to end poverty in California has agreed to plead guilty to carrying out a $248 million dollar scheme to defraud investors and lenders to the Los Angeles-based startup he co-founded, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced on Thursday, Aug. 21. Joseph Neal Sanberg, once the public face of a high-flying, environmentally conscious digital bank with star-studded backing and a sky-high $2 billion valuation,
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