CHICAGO – An Illinois man has been accused of scamming hundreds of Chinese investors out of millions of dollars, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday.

The SEC alleges Anshoo R. Sethi, 29, created a company that claimed investors would be financing construction of the "World's First Zero Carbon Emission Platinum LEED certified" hotel and conference center near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The agency alleges Sethi fraudulently sold more $145 million in securities and $11 million in fees to more than 250 investors, most of them from China.

Sethi and his companies told investors they had acquired all the necessary building permits and had signed several major hotel chains onto the project, the SEC alleges.