A Saugus loan broker pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to operating a scheme that defrauded small businesses from across the country in connection with their efforts to obtain business loans.

Joseph L. Angelo Jr., 59, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of wire fraud. Angelo defrauded 10 small business owners of more than $1 million by representing that his companies – Lease One Corp. and Palmtree Finance & Funding LLC – were brokers for obtaining loans for small businesses from November 2011 to March 2015. Angelo required the customers to deliver to him what he said were fully refundable deposits, aggregating over $1.1 million, for loans that he said had been approved and would be funded within a few days. In fact, none of the loans had been approved and there were no funds available. When the small business owners complained about delays in receiving funds, Angelo promised that their deposits would be refunded, but he did not refund any of the deposits or secure funding for any of the requested loans.

Angelo is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 29, 2017.