After Kuczora lost his finance job in 2007, he styled himself as the managing director of KCS Financial, a phony finance firm he ran from his Elgin, Illinois basement. Kuczora falsely represented to unwary investors that he could help them secure millions of dollars in financing; they paid him large sums of money to cover fees, which Kuczora then pocketed for personal use before disappearing. Based on these facts, to what crime do you think Kuczora pled guilty?

Source: United States v. Kuczora, No. 17-2725 (7th Cir. 2018).