01 Apr Man charged with defrauding investors
Authorities in New York have charged a 39-year-old investment manager with fraud. He is accused of trying to defraud investors of $95 million between July 2015 and March 2016. The man allegedly requested money from investors to support non-existent investments. The director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has filed a separate civil lawsuit accused the man of stealing the funding he solicited.
The man was employed by an investment bank prior to this incident. Following his arrest, company representatives released a statement saying that they were outraged by the man’s alleged actions and will be conducting an internal investigation to uncover further details. He was released from police custody on a $5 million bond.
Investigators have alleged that the 39-year-old used his employment to solicit funding from investors who believed it was for a legitimate enterprise. However, the SEC claims that the enterprise in question was a shell entity that was entirely owned by the defendant himself. One hedge fund reportedly lost as much as $24.6 million as a result of this incident; authorities say that the defendant transferred the money to his personal accounts and lost it in exchange-traded funds.
People who are accused of fraud may face serious penalties if they are convicted. In such circumstances, an attorney might be able to help a client by investigating the nature of the charges and determining their veracity. It may be possible to weaken the prosecution’s evidence and have the charges reduced to a lesser offense or even dismissed altogether if it can be shown that the specific intent to defraud was absent.