Securities Fraud Cases: NY Hedge Fund Manager Bilks Investors of Over $800K, Maize Fund Scam Leads to Restitution, Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims Get $355M, and Kentucky Scheme Ends with Probation, Compensation

SEC Says New York Hedge Fund Manager Stole From Investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says that Moazzam Malik, a purported hedge fund manager in NYC, stole money from investors. Malik allegedly falsely claimed to be running a hedge fund holding about $100 million in assets under management. He is accused of touting high returns.

Malik raised over $840,000, but his fund, which didn’t make actual investments, never held over $90,177 in assets. Instead, he kept taking out money and spending the funds. He refused to give investors back their money, even pretending to be a fund employee and sending out an e-mail saying that he had passed away. Mailk purportedly kept soliciting investors even as he received redemption requests.

Maize Fund Investment Scam Leads to $6.7M Restitution
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has gotten a federal court order demanding that Scott M. Ross and his Maze Asset Management LLC, Maize Capital Management, LLC and his Maize Capital Management LLC pay $5.4 million in restitution and a $1.3 million civil penalty for his Maize Fund investment scam. Ross is serving time behind bars for his involvement in two other financial scams.

Ross and his companies are accused of making false statements to prospective customers, putting out bogus account statements reflecting trading profits when there were none, mishandling client funds, and not properly registering as a Commodity Pool Operator with the CFTC. The regulator’s complaint charged Ross and the companies with violating core anti-fraud Commodity Exchange Act provisions related to their solicitation and managing of the Maize Fund, which is a pooled foreign exchange account.

Madoff Ponzi Scam Victims Get Back Another $355M
According to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, about $355 million will be returned to the victims of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scam. Along with a $497 million settlement reached with federal funds Primeo Fund and Herald Fund, some $10.5 billion has been recovered in the liquidation proceedings for the scheme that bilked inventors of billions of dollars.

This is Madoff trustee Irving Picard’s fifth distribution of recovered moneys to Madoff customers. He is in charge of the Securities Investor Protection Act liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC.

$1.3M Restitution in Kentucky Securities Fraud Case
The Department of Financial Institutions says that Pamela Jean Williams and Richard Dow Williams must pay over $1.3 million in securities fraud restitution to five victims. If they don’t pay, then their sentences of one year and three years, respectively, would go from probation to time behind bars.

The Williamses were charged on multiple counts of selling unregistered securities, fraudulent securities practices, and omitting or misrepresenting material facts about a gas well investment. Each pleaded guilty to one consolidated fraud charge and has agreed to pay restitution.

Federal Court Orders Scott M. Ross and his Companies to Pay More than $6.7 Million in Restitution and a Civil Monetary Penalty for Defrauding Investors in His Commodity Pools, Mishandling Customer Funds, and Failing to Properly Register as a Commodity Pool Operator, CFTC, February 13, 2015

Madoff’s Victims Are Repaid Another $355 Million, Trustee Says, NPR, February 9, 2015

More Blog Posts:
Sun Antonio Spurs Star Tim Duncan Files Texas Investment Adviser Fraud Case, Stockbroker Fraud Case, January 31, 2015
Standard & Poor’s Settles Inflated Ratings Case for $1.5 Billion, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, February 3, 2015

SEC Subjects Credit Rating Agencies, Asset-Backed Securities Issuers to Tighter Rules, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, August 28, 2014