Ponzi Schemes
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May 23, 2022
Art dealer Inigo Philbrick will spend 7 years in prison and forfeit over $86 million for defrauding investors to finance his art business. Over a 3-year period, from 2016 through 2019, Philbrick misrepresented the ownership of certain artworks, selling multiple ownership interests in an artwork totaling more than 100%; created fraudulent contracts and records to further the scheme; made material misrepresentations and omissions to collectors, investors, and lenders; and sold or used artworks as collateral on loans without the knowledge of the artworks’ co-owners. The fraud was eventually exposed when investors learned of the fraudulent records and material misrepresentations Philbrick had made, and a lender notified Philbrick that he was in default on a $14 million loan. USAO SDNYMay 4, 2022
Brenda Smith, former investment manager for Broad Reach Capital LP, pleaded guilty to seven counts of securities fraud. She will pay $47.2 million in restitution, spend 109 months in prison, and spend another 3 years thereafter under supervised release, for orchestrating a $100 million securities fraud scheme. To further her fraud, Smith provided investors with false monthly account statements, made false representations about her personal investment in the company, satisfied redemption requests by diverting other investors’ funds to pay the redemption amounts, and transferred clients’ funds to investments that were outside the scope of the promised investment strategy. NJ USAOApril 15, 2022
Damon Elliott, and his entity Piptastic Limited will pay almost $6.5 million in disgorgement and interest, and a civil penalty of nearly $100,000 for his promotion of a Ponzi scheme in violation of the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act. Elliott, through Piptastic, misused investor assets, lied about the status of their investments, provided fabricated account statements, and lied about investors’ funds being safely held in trading accounts. In addition to the disgorgement and interest levied against Elliott, Piptastic is enjoined from further violations of the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act. SECApril 12, 2022
Robert A. Karmann, a CPA and former CFO of DC Solar, was sentenced to 6 years in prison and ordered to pay $624 million for his role in perpetrating a Ponzi-style scheme, by taking new investor money to pay older investors, and deploying circular transactions to cover up their illicit behavior. DC Solar manufactured trailer-mounted solar generators and marketed them as having extensive third-party lease demand. Karmann and his co-conspirators offered falsified financial statements and operation reports and provided fabricated revenue summaries to victims of the scheme. Karmann oversaw the hidden transfers of funds, gave false information to investor representatives, and instructed a subordinate to “make it up” when asked by a customer for reports on the location of their solar generators. USAO EDCAApril 8, 2022
Danish resident Casper Mikkelsen, also known as Carsten Nielsen, Brian Thomson, Thomas Jensen, and Casper Muller, has been ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution and $3.6 million in penalties after he was found to have misappropriated client funds for his personal use, used earlier investor funds to pay later investors, and failed to register as a commodity trading advisor. Mikkelsen’s victims had believed they were investing their funds to trade in forex. CFTCFebruary 14, 2022
Zachary Joseph Horwitz, 35, of Los Angeles, CA will spend 20 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay over $230 million in restitution. Horwitz raised $650 million from over 250 investors in his Ponzi scheme—investors who were lied to about future licensing and distribution agreements with online platforms such as Netflix and HBO. Horwitz operated his Ponzi scheme via 1inMM Capital, duping five major groups of private investors through hundreds of 6- and 12-month promissory notes, which he defaulted on. Horwitz initiated the scheme in 2014, and it remained active until his arrest by the FBI in April 2021. USAO CDCATop Ten Financial and Healthcare Fraud Prison Sentences of 2021
Posted 01/28/22
