Ponzi Schemes

April 8, 2021

A man in New Mexico has been ordered to pay over $10.3 million in monetary sanctions and relief after he admitted to running a Ponzi scheme that spanned nearly twenty years.  Instead of investing client funds in U.S. Treasury Bond futures, Douglas Lien misappropriated over $14.2 million from 45 clients, while charging them over $3.5 million in so-called management fees.  Lien has now been permanently banned from commodities trading and registering as a futures commission merchant.  CFTC

April 7, 2021

A default judgment was ordered against Negus Capital Inc. and its principal Aaron Butler, based on charges of commodity pool fraud in connection with binary options trading.  The order finds that defendants unlawfully solicited  the public to trade binary options contracts on the North American Derivatives Exchange, defrauded 70 customers who sent in nearly $300,000, misappropriated customer funds, and operated as an unregistered commodity pool operator. In addition to restitution, defendants were ordered to pay civil penalties of nearly $900,000.  CFTC

February 24, 2021

Leroy King, the former chief of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in obstructing the SEC’s investigation into the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford and the Stanford International Bank.  Stanford provided King with cash and luxury gifts, and in exchange King improperly denied his agency’s assistance to the SEC.  DOJ

February 5, 2021

Private equity fund ACP X, LP, its manager Laurence Allen, and other corporate entities owned and controlled by Allen including NYPPEX Holdings, LLC, have been ordered to pay nearly $7 million.  Allen allegedly used investor funds to pay himself and others exorbitant salaries and cover the expenses of Allen’s affiliated entities, contrary to representations to investors.  A receiver was appointed to wind down the fund.  NY

January 11, 2021

Steve Chen was sentenced to 10 years in prison following his guilty plea to charges arising from his promotion of a pyramid/Ponzi scam that netted $147 million from tens of thousands of investors.  Chen told victims that they could purchase interests in U.S. Fine Investment Arts, Inc. and other companies owned by him, falsely claiming that those companies mined and sold amber and other gemstones, and enlisted those investors to recruit others by awarding them bonuses and “Gem Coins” that he claimed were a digital currency.  USAO CD Cal

December 9, 2020

A man in Washington D.C. who ran a fraudulent diamond investment Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay $23 million in restitution to victims throughout the United States and Canada who were told their funds would be used to purchase rough diamonds that would be cut, polished, and resold at a profit.  To lure investors to the scheme, Jose Angel Aman and his co-conspirators promised that the investments were secured by Aman’s inventory of diamonds, allegedly valued at $25 million.  In fact, there was no $25 million inventory of diamonds, and the funds were used for interest payments to earlier investors and to pay Aman and his co-conspirators.  USAO SDFL

November 30, 2020

An attorney in Pennsylvania who defrauded his own clients through a $2.7 million Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison and ordered to pay over $2.1 million in restitution and $273,091 in forfeiture.  In pleading guilty earlier this year, Todd Lahr admitted to soliciting investments from his clients for business opportunities that didn’t actually exist—including property leases in Europe and mining operations in Papua New Guinea—and then using the money that he didn’t spend on personal expenses to pay prior investors.  The monetary penalty in this criminal action will be offset by the final judgment obtained by the SEC in June; in the parallel civil action with the SEC, Lahr was ordered to pay over $1.1 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest.  DOJ; USAO EDPA