Celello Law Group LLC

Federal regulators say attorney Marc Celello did more than just whisper advice in the ear of a Cherokee County businessman accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme. The general counsel for Jim Torchia's Credit Nation empire was also an "active participant" in fleecing elderly and unsophisticated investors out of their savings, preparing false documents and approving dubious advertisements that portrayed a sinking company as rock solid, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges in a civil complaint filed Thursday. Celello is accused of fraud, aiding and abetting and routing investors' money into his own pocket.