Financial and Investment Fraud

February 13, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a felony indictment today charging Moazzam Ifzal “Mark” Malik with stealing over $250,000 from five investors by fraudulently soliciting them to invest in his purported hedge funds, including Seven Sages Capital, L.P. and Wolf Hedge LLC. Malik is accused of luring investors with false representations that he managed a multi-million dollar hedge fund that would guarantee high returns, and then diverted their monies for his own personal use. NY

February 13, 2015

A federal court ordered Scott M. Ross, formerly of Gilberts, Illinois, and his companies, Maize Capital Management, LLC and Maize Asset Management, LLC, to pay $6.7 million in restitution and civil penalties for defrauding investors, mishandling customer funds, and failing to register as a commodity pool operator.  CFTC

February 11, 2015

Ohio Attorney General DeWine announced a lawsuit against Buffalo-based debt collector Nationwide Recovery Group LLC and its owner, Michael P. McCarthy, for violating the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by allegedly impersonating Ohio government agencies and threatening consumers with arrest while attempting to collect debts. While operating in Ohio, the business also allegedly used the fictitious names Gallagher Mediation and the Law Firm of John McGuire to mislead consumers. OH

February 9, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced felony charges against Khawaja Saud Masud for stealing over $1M from a retired pediatrician and his wife by fraudulently soliciting them to invest in his purported hedge fund RKS Capital, LP. NY

February 4, 2015

Chief Judge Linda R. Reade of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa ordered U.S. Bank National Association to pay $18 million dollars to be returned to Peregrine Financial Group, Inc. customers over allegations of misappropriation of customer funds.  CFTC

January 16, 2015

Two payday lending companies, AMG Services, Inc. and MNE Services, Inc., have settled FTC charges that they violated the law by charging consumers undisclosed and inflated fees. Under the proposed settlement the companies will pay $21 million – the largest FTC recovery in a payday lending case – and will waive another $285 million in charges that were assessed but not collected. The FTC noted that “the settlement requires these companies to turn over millions of dollars that they took from financially-distressed consumers, and waive hundreds of millions in other charges.” FTC

January 9, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a settlement with Encore Capital Group, Inc., a major debt buyer, for bringing improper debt collection actions against thousands of New York consumers. According the state, Encore sued New York consumers and obtained uncontested default judgments against consumers who failed to respond to the lawsuits, even though the underlying claims were untimely under New York law. Under the settlement, Encore will seek to vacate more than 4,500 improperly obtained judgments totaling nearly $18 million. Encore will also reform its debt collection practices and pay civil penalties and costs in the amount of $675,000. NY

March 21, 2014

Utah-based Okland Construction Co. agreed to pay $928,000 to resolve allegations it made false statements and submitted false claims under the Small Business Administration’s Section 8(a) Program for Small and Disadvantaged Businesses.  The allegations were first raised in a qui tam lawsuit filed by Section 8(a) participant Saiz Construction Co. and its owner Abel Saiz under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.  They will receive a whistleblower award of $148,480.  DOJ