October 17, 2018

An investment advisor who owned and operated an investment firm called CM Capital Management LLC has plead guilty to running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 53 investors of $6.1 million over the course of 13 years. In at least 13 of those cases, the investors with Edward Lee Moody, Jr.‘s firm were elderly people who had entrusted him with their life savings. Instead of investing the funds on his clients’ behalf, Moody used them to buy securities for himself, as well as buy a home, make car payments, and travel. To cover his tracks, he paid earlier investors using funds obtained from newer investors and created falsified statements that showed earned returns. Yet the reality was that in most of those cases, Moody hadn’t even opened brokerage accounts for his clients, let alone buy securities on their behalf. He now faces a sentence of decades in prison at his sentencing in February. USAO EDVA

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, Securities Fraud,