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A California man who once conned actress Jenifer Lewis out of $50,000 for fake business investments has been arrested and charged.

According to Daily Mail, 57-year-old Antonio Mariot Wilson, who went by many aliases like Dr. Tony Mariot and Brice Carrington, scammed four women out of close to $400,000 while in romantic relationships with them. He has been charged with wire fraud after tricking women into giving him money for a fake sound design company called Ultimate FX and a fake software company called 2nd Life. He is facing 20 years in prison.

Unfortunately, the esteemed Lewis got caught up in Wilson’s web of deception. While working as a manager at L.A Fitness gym, he scoped Lewis out as she visited the gym to work out and researched her online before he approached her about becoming her trainer. He fed her lies about him being a Oscar winner. Three months into their romance, he convinced her to give him $50,000 for a fake business endeavor.

“The relationship of course became personal and he convinced me to invest into a fake sound invention,” the black-ish star told TMZ back in 2017. “We became romantically involved but little did I know he was a life criminal, a con artist. He had researched me on the internet, knew all of my ins and outs and played them against me. This is a horrible man and I really got hurt. It was very painful.”

Once Lewis figured out what was going on, she sued the gym and settled for $13,000.

“Wilson conned the victims to invest in these companies by making false statements, such as claiming that the ABC television network and EA Sports video game developer had used Ultimate FX for their shows and games,’ the Department Of Justice said.

In total, he scammed these four women out $387,000 and used it to pay off debt, pay his rent and live the glamorous life.

He reportedly took on many false identities that gave him a level of status he truly didn’t have.

‘To create a false impression of legitimacy and prestige. Wilson falsely claimed to be a Navy SEAL, an Oxford University graduate, and an Oxford professor teaching biblical antiquities at UCLA,’ the DOJ added.

This isn’t the first time Wilson had been caught committing fraud. In 2009, he was sentenced to four years in prison for wire fraud and tax evasion for trying to defraud those investing into UltimateFX.

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