Investor Fraud

Ex-Investment Manager Gets 12-Years in $96M Ponzi Scam

Published on: September 27, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Brian R. Callahan, a former investment fund manager, has been ordered to serve 12 years in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a $96M Ponzi scam. He also must pay $67.6M in restitution. Callahan pleaded guilty to wire fraud and securities fraud in 2014.

Between 12/2006 and 2/2012, Callahan raised over $118M from at least 40 investors related to four investment funds he oversaw. He told investors that their money would be placed in different securities, such as hedge funds and mutual funds. What happened instead was that the former investment manager misappropriated about $96M in a Ponzi scam.

Callahan is accused of diverting millions of dollars toward an unprofitable beachfront residence and resort development named Panoramic View that he co-owned with his brother-in-law, Adam Manson. The latter is a co-defendant in the Ponzi fraud.

Securities Cases: SunTrust Settles Improper Mutual Fund Fee Charges for $1.1M, Ex-Morgan Stanley Barred Over Client He Later Married, and Two RIAs Are Barred for Cherry Picking

Published on: September 14, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Charges SunTrust With Collecting Over $1.1M in Excess Mutual Fund Fees

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges accusing SunTrust Investment Services of collecting over $1.1M in unwarranted fees from mutual fund clients. The SunTrust Banks subsidiary will pay an over $1.1M penalty to resolve the regulator’s civil charges.

According to the regulator’s order, SunTrust Investment Services improperly recommended costlier mutual fund share classes to clients when less expensive shares of these funds were available. The SEC says this was a breach of the investment services firm’s fiduciary duty to take actions in the client’s best interests.

NJ Investment Adviser Allegedly Used Investor Funds to Pay Gambling Bills, Radio Host is Accused of Bilking Investors of Over $5M in Ticket Resale Scheme, & Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty to Felony Charges

Published on: September 6, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

NJ Investment Adviser Accused of Stealing Over $1M from Clients
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has brought investment adviser fraud charges against Scott Newsholme, a New Jersey-based financial adviser and tax preparer, accusing him of stealing over $1M from clients so he could support his lifestyle and support his gambling. According to the regulator, Newsholme generated fake account statements and “doctored stock certificates and forged promissory notes.”

Prosecutors have filed a parallel criminal case against him. Rather than invest clients’ funds in different securities as promised, Newsholme allegedly went to a check-cashing store to cash their checks and then kept their money for himself to cover his own expenses and gambling activities, as well as make Ponzi-like payments to the clients who wanted their money back.

Radio Host Accused of Stealing Millions of Dollars in Concert Ticket Scheme
Craig Carton, a sports radio host, is accused of running a concert ticket scam to bilk investors. According to the SEC’s complaint, he and Joseph Meli, another man whom the regulator had already filed charges against earlier this year, touted blocks of face value tickets to concert performances that were in demand and promised investors high returns that would come from ticket resales and their accompanying price markups.

Ex-Virginia Investment Company Owner Arrested in Nearly $20M Fraud

Published on: September 4, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Daryl Gene Bank, who is the owner of dozens of Virginia liability companies, and Raeann Gibson have been arrested in an alleged investment fraud that prosecutors believe cost investors almost $20M. They are charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit both, taking part in illegal monetary transactions, and running a number of investment scams between 2012 through July 2017.

WTVR reports that among the allegations against Bank is that he caused a number of material misrepresentations and omissions to be presented to a number of investors, including a blind elderly investor who gave Bank $20K of his retirement money. Bank allegedly placed most of the funds in Prime Spectrum, which is purportedly an investment scam.

If convicted, Bank could be ordered to serve up to 260 years behind bars. Gibson could be sentenced to up to 240 years.

Former Investment Adviser Gets Five Years in Prison for Stealing Over $600K From Clients

Published on: August 29, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Aaron J. Johnson, a former registered investment adviser who ran Capital Advisors until state regulators took back his firm’s registration in 2013, is sentenced to five years behind bars for financial fraud. Johnson, 37, claimed that he stole over $600K from clients because he suffered a mental health breakdown.

According to prosecutors, Johnson took money from middle-class clients’ retirement accounts and charged them excessive fees to the point that he’d practically drained their funds. After Capital Advisors lost its registration, Johnson became affiliated with Trade PMR, a Florida-based firm that offers custody and brokerage services for investment advisers that are registered. Prosecutors contend that even then Johnson kept stealing from clients despite the fact that he was now under investigation. Prosecutors said that after Trade PMR began to question the fees that Johnson charged clients, including $3200 in client fees for an account that only held $13K in assets, the ex-adviser generated fraudulent documents as proof that his actions were warranted. He drained the account of the client, who was a single mom with three kids, until there was only $5 left.

Johnson has been ordered to pay back everyone that he defrauded.

Investment Adviser Accused of Bilking Pro Athlete

Published on: August 22, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has brought investment adviser against Jeremy Joseph Drake. He is accused of bilking a known professional athlete and his wife, making about $900K in compensation in the process. At the time of the purported financial fraud, Drake worked with HCR Wealth Advisers.

According to the regulator’s complaint, the couple entrusted over $35M of their assets to Drake to manage. As their investment adviser, he owed them a judiciary obligation.

The investment adviser fraud allegedly went on for over three years, during which time he allegedly told the couple that they were receiving a .15 to .20% fee rate on assets under management when they were actually paying a 1% fee. As a result, the athlete and his wife ended up paying $1.2M more in management fees than what they were told they had paid.

Ex-Investment Banker is Sentenced for Tribal Bond Fraud

Published on: August 11, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Jason Galanis, an ex-investment banker, who is already serving eleven years behind bars for stock rigging, has been sentenced to five years in prison for fraud involving a Native American tribal bond. He must forfeit over $43M and pay nearly $44M of restitution.

In the tribal bond scam, Galanis and his father John Galanis are accused of convincing Oglala Sioux Tribe affiliate Wakpamni Lake Community Corp. of issuing $60M in municipal bonds. The two of them and others then misappropriated the proceeds from the bonds, including $8.5M for Jason personally. Meantime, bond investors were left with worthless securities while the tribal corporation had no means of paying the interest payments that it owed on the bonds.

According to the prosecution, the bond scam bilked Galanis’ tribal bond clients and the investing public while “defrauding the Native American tribe into issuing bonds.” Galanis and his co-conspirators sold the bonds, which were illiquid, to pension funds, and stole the profits. Meantime, they allegedly hid conflicts of interest and the fact that the bonds were not liquid.

Aurelius Capital Files Lawsuit Seeking To Have Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Case Dismissed

Published on: August 7, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In the United States District Court in San Juan, the hedge fund Aurelius Capital has filed a lawsuit seeking to have Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy case dismissed. Aurelius Capital is the holder of more than $470 million of Puerto Rico General Obligation bonds (“GO Bonds”). All Puerto Rico GO bonds were supposed to have been guaranteed under the Commonwealth’s constitution. Now, however, GO bonds are subject to a five-year plan that could force bondholders to take substantial reductions on what they are owed upon repayment.

Puerto Rico filed for Title III bankruptcy protection in May. Although bankruptcy protection was not originally available to Puerto Rico, under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), the law was changed to allow for Puerto Rico to file a bankrupt-like procedure if it could not resolve all of its debt with bondholders.

As with other bankruptcies, the island has been granted a “stay” from creditors. Now, Aurelius wants the federal court to lift the stay, which has prevented it and other creditors from suing the Puerto Rican government.

SEC Cases: Charges Filed Against Massachusetts Man Accused of Misappropriating Investor Funds to Pay Rent of Fiancée’s Restaurants & $2M Offering Fraud Allegedly Targeted 70 Non-Accredited Investors

Published on: July 30, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Businessman Accused of Taking Investors’ Money That Was Supposed to Go Toward Fighting Cancer
In a complaint brought by the SEC, the regulator has filed securities fraud charges against Patrick Muraca, a Massachusetts businessmen, accusing him of misappropriating investments that were supposed to go toward helping to develop cancer diagnostic tests. Instead, Muraca, who raised almost $1.2M through MetaboRX LLC and NanoMolecularDX LLC, allegedly transferred $400K of these funds to pay the rent of his fiancées restaurant businesses as well as for other purchases.

Now, the regulator is charging Muraca and his companies with Securities Act of 1933, Section 17(a) violations and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 violations. The SEC wants disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, interest, and penalties.

Meantime, prosecutors have brought related criminal charges against Muraca.

Expanded Texas Securities Case Indicts Six in Multimillion Dollar Pump-and-Dump Scam

Published on: July 21, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In a second superseding indictment to an ongoing Texas securities fraud probe, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas has brought criminal charges again against several people accused in an alleged multimillion dollar pump-and-dump scam. This latest indictment expands on the original criminal charges, which involved Chimera Energy Corp. stock and an alleged $6M scam.

With this latest indictment, investors of 12 stocks were allegedly defrauded of more than $25M. Prosecutors said that the scam bilked investors in different companies through the use of fraudulent trading practices, the publication of misleading and false information via ads and press releases, and the circumvention of Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements.

Those charged in this latest Texas securities indictment include Andrew Ian Farmer, Charles Earl Grob, Carolyn Price Austin and Eddie Douglas Austin of Houston, John David Brotherton of League City, and Scott Russel Sieck of Florida for the parts they played in the alleged conspiracy fraud involving a dozen stocks, including Chimera Energy Corp. stock. The latter was the stock involved in the initial criminal indictment that brought charges against both Farmer and Thomas Galen Massey, also a Houston resident.