(Bloomberg) -- The head of a Florida private equity fund pleaded guilty to charges that he falsified documents and impersonated officers of a university endowment fund to secure $140 million in bank loans.

Elliot Smerling admitted he obtained the loans on the basis of misrepresentations and phony documents, including a forged audit letter and falsified subscription agreements and bank records. 

The charges overlap with claims in a civil lawsuit filed by Silicon Valley Bank, of Menlo Park, California. The bank last month won an $80 million default judgment against Smerling’s fund.

Read More: Florida Fund Manager Smerling Indicted for $95 Million Fraud 

Smerling pleaded guilty to bank fraud in a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. He also pleaded guilty to securities fraud, for misleading investors in his fund. 

He faces as many as 30 years in prison for bank fraud and 20 years for securities fraud when he’s sentenced May 13, though his actual sentence will likely be much lower.

Smerling, of Lake Worth, Florida, was arrested and charged last February. 

The case is U.S. v. Smerling, 21-cr-317, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Adds details of guilty plea starting in second paragraph.)

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