Nicholas Cosmo, founder of Agape World Inc. in Hauppauge, New York, swindled investors out of more than $370 million and used the money to pay for limousines, fund a baseball league and pay off a restitution order from an earlier fraud, U.S. authorities said.

Cosmo, 37, operated a Ponzi scheme at least from October 2003 to December 2008 that victimized more than 1,500 individual investors, putting the money into Agape World bank accounts, according to a 51-page affidavit by U.S. Postal Inspector Richard Cinnamo detailing the government’s allegations.

“By paying investors partial returns -- represented to be profits from interest-generating loans -- Cosmo persuaded current investors to invest additional funds in Agape and AMA, and also encouraged new victims to invest in the two companies,” U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell’s office said in a statement today.

AMA is Agape Merchant Advance LLC, another Cosmo company …