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Money to Burn and a Boca Raton Home Part of Insider Trading Scheme

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Virginia attorney Matthew Kluger and New York stock trader Garrett D. Bauer were sentenced to 12 years and 9 years, respectively, for a 17-year insider trading scheme. Working together, the two netted $37 million in profits by trading ahead of more than 30 different corporate transactions based on confidential insider trading information that Kluger stole from multiple law firm employers.

Bauer spent more than $7 million of his share of the proceeds to purchase two properties – approximately $6.65 million for an Upper East Side condominium in New York and approximately $875,000 for a home in Boca Raton, Florida. The properties will now be forfeited as part of the settlement.

As law enforcement investigations intensified, Bauer instructed another co-conspirator to burn approximately $175,000 in cash that Bauer had paid him out of concern his fingerprints would be found on the money.

Both Kluger and Bauer had previously pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice.

“The severe sentences imposed today are a warning to anyone trying to game the financial markets for their own enrichment,” U.S. Attorney Fishman said. “Garrett Bauer and Matthew Kluger participated in one of the longest-running insider trading schemes ever prosecuted. Bauer traded on confidential information that Kluger obtained from his position of trust at major law firms and parlayed it into tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits. Today, both of them reap the punishment their conduct deserves.”

“Millions of investors have entrusted their life savings to the integrity of financial markets and the belief of a level playing field,” said Michael B. Ward, Special Agent In Charge of the Newark Division of the FBI. “Insider trading corrupts the process and tilts the playing field in favor of those privileged few with access to information not available to the public, and at the expense of unsuspecting and unknowing investors. It is important that those who manipulate that trust be held accountable in strictest accordance with the law.”

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Bauer and two co-conspirators – Kluger and Kenneth Robinson, 45, of Long Beach, N.Y. – engaged in an insider trading scheme that began in 1994 and relied on Kluger, a lawyer, to steal information from his employers and their clients.

Bauer admitted that as part of the scheme he traded ahead of more than 30 different corporate transactions based on inside information provided by Kluger.

Over time, Kluger worked at four of the nation’s premier mergers and acquisitions law firms. From 1994 to 1997, he worked first as a summer associate and later as a corporate associate at Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York. From 1998 to 2001, he worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York and Palo Alto, Calif., as an associate in their corporate department. From 2001 to 2002, Kluger worked as a corporate associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York. From Dec. 5, 2005, to March 11, 2011, Kluger worked at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (“Wilson Sonsini”) as a senior associate in the Mergers & Acquisitions department of the firm’s Washington office.

While at the firms, Kluger regularly stole and disclosed to Robinson material, nonpublic information regarding anticipated corporate mergers and acquisitions on which his firms were working. Early in the scheme, Kluger disclosed information relating to deals on which he personally worked. As the scheme developed, and in an effort to avoid law enforcement detection, Kluger took information which he found primarily by viewing documents on his firms’ computer systems.

Once Kluger provided the inside information to Robinson, Robinson passed it to Bauer, who then purchased shares for himself, Kluger, and Robinson in Bauer’s trading accounts. He sold the shares once the relevant deal was publicly announced and the stock price rose. Bauer gave Robinson and Kluger their shares of the illicit profits in cash – often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars – that Bauer withdrew in multiple transactions from ATMs.

Bauer admitted that after Kluger joined Wilson Sonsini, the three conspirators took greater efforts to prevent detection of their insider trading scheme. Among other techniques, they used pay phones and prepaid cellular phones that they referred to as “throwaway phones” to discuss the scheme.

Bauer also admitted that after Robinson told him that the FBI and IRS had searched Robinson’s house and had asked questions about the illicit scheme, Bauer destroyed a prepaid phone, discarding the pieces in two separate trash cans at a New York McDonald’s restaurant.

In addition to the prison term, Bauer and Kluger were both sentenced to three years supervised release. As part of his guilty plea, Bauer also agreed to forfeit the contents of numerous trading and bank accounts he used to facilitate the scheme, as well as homes that he purchased with the proceeds. In total, the value of the property Bauer is required to forfeit is $21 million. Kluger agreed to forfeit $415,000.

Robinson pleaded guilty on April 11, 2011, to an Information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Claudio Osorio of InnoVida in Miami Beach Charged with Fraud

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Claudio Osorio stole nearly half of the money raised from investors to pay the mortgage on his multi-million dollar mansion and other lavish lifestyle expenses, alleges the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC charged Osorio with defrauding investors by grossly exaggerating the financial success of his company that purportedly produced housing materials to withstand fires and hurricanes.

Osorio, who is a former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner, raised at least $16.8 million from investors by portraying InnoVida Holdings LLC as having millions of dollars more in cash and equity than it actually did, according to the SEC. Osorio sometimes solicited investors one-on-one at political fundraising events.

To add an air of legitimacy to his company, Osorio assembled a high-profile board of directors that included a former governor of Florida, a lobbyist, and a major real estate developer. Osorio falsely told a potential investor he had invested tens of millions of dollars of his own money as InnoVida’s largest stakeholder, and he hyped a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund investment as a ruse to solicit additional funds from investors.

The SEC also charged InnoVida’s chief financial officer Craig Toll, a certified public accountant living in Pembroke Pines, Fla., who helped Osorio create the false financial picture of InnoVida.

The SEC alleges that besides his Miami Beach mansion, Osorio illegally used investor money to pay for his Maserati, a Colorado mountain retreat home, and country club dues. He stole at least $8.1 million in investor funds.

“From his lap of luxury, Osorio concocted a compelling story about InnoVida by recruiting an impressive board of directors and boasting a bogus financial condition to lure investors into funding his scheme of lies,” said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida today announced criminal charges against Osorio and Toll.

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the scheme began in 2007 and lasted until 2010. InnoVida was purportedly in the business of manufacturing building panels used to construct houses and other structures resistant to fires and hurricanes. The company entered bankruptcy in 2011.

To induce funds from investors, Osorio and Toll allegedly produced false pro forma financial statements. A pro forma financial statement for March 31, 2009, stated that InnoVida had more than $35 million in cash and cash equivalents and more than $100 million of equity. A pro forma financial statement for Dec. 31, 2009, listed more than $39 million in cash and cash equivalents and $122 million of equity.

In reality, the company’s bank accounts held less than $185,000 on March 31, 2009, and less than $2 million on Dec. 31, 2009. Toll failed to review all of InnoVida’s bank account statements when he drafted financial statements. Instead, he accepted Osorio’s misrepresentations that InnoVida had these assets in an account to which Toll did not have access.

The SEC alleges that Osorio offered bogus share prices to prospective investors based on false valuations. He told one investor that InnoVida was valued at $250 million, and then a week later told a different investor that the company was worth $50 million. The latter investor purchased $100,000 of Osorio’s stake in the company for five cents per share.

The SEC further alleges that Osorio lied to an investor when he said that he had personally invested tens of millions of dollars into InnoVida. He had in fact made no such investment.

Osorio also enticed an investor to increase an investment in InnoVida by touting a supposed $500 million deal he was negotiating with a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund that would significantly benefit InnoVida investors. Osorio went so far as to create a document showing the investor how much he would make once the sovereign wealth deal closed and was funded. Based on Osorio’s misrepresentations, the investor was able to raise approximately $700,000 and later borrowed $3 million from a close friend. However, no sovereign wealth buyout deal ever materialized, and InnoVida investors never benefited as promised.

The SEC’s complaint seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, financial penalties, and injunctive relief against InnoVida, Osorio, and Toll to enjoin them from future violations of the federal securities laws. The complaint also seeks an order barring Osorio and Toll from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

Mr. Osorio and and his philanthropist wife Amarilis Osorio filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy in March, 2011, according to the Miami Herald.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Former Florida GlobeTel Officials to Pay SEC Penalties

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Timothy Huff, Lawrence Lynch, Joseph J. Monterosso, and Luis Vargas, former GlobeTel executives, face more than $3 million in remedies, motions for disgorgement, civil penalties and officer-and-director bars following a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The civil action arises from a Florida-based accounting fraud involving the former Delaware company that was headquartered in Pembroke Pines, Florida at the time.

The District Court adopted a recommendation previously entered by a magistrate judge and ordered the following remedies:

  • Former GlobeTel Communications (GlobeTel) chief executive officer Timothy Huff to pay a $1.21 million penalty and $1.5 million in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest. Judge Joan A. Lenard calculated Huff’s penalty by imposing a third-tier penalty for each of Huff’s 10 most-serious false disclosures. She also ordered him to disgorge the full $1.5 million that he received when he exercised stock options in the midst of the fraud.
  • Former GlobeTel chief financial officer Lawrence Lynch to pay a $780,000 civil penalty.
  • Former GlobeTel former executive Joseph J. Monterosso to pay a $300,000 penalty and $675,000 in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest (joint-and-severable with Luis Vargas) and Monterosso barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.
  • Former GlobeTel employee Luis Vargas to pay a $150,000 penalty and $675,000 in disgorgement plus prejudgment interest (joint-and-severable with Joseph J. Monterosso) and Vargas barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.

Starting in November 2007, the Commission brought civil actions against the defendants in connection with GlobeTel Communications Corp., now World Surveillance Group Inc. (GlobeTel). GlobeTel reported millions of dollars in telecommunications revenue from 2002 to 2006 that the Commission alleged was fake. Huff and former GlobeTel chief financial officer Thomas Jimenez were sentenced to prison as a result of parallel criminal prosecutions. See U.S. v. Huff, 09-cr-60295-DMM (S.D. Fla.); U.S. v. Jimenez, 08-cr-60367-DTKH (S.D. Fla.). GlobeTel and Jimenez previously consented to the entry of judgments against them in the Commission’s action.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Guggenheim Securities Fined $800,000 by FINRA

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Failure to supervise two collateralized debt obligation (CDO) traders who engaged in activities to hide a trading loss resulted in a $800,000 FINRA fine for Guggenheim Securities, LLC of New York.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) also sanctioned the two traders: Alexander Rekeda, the former head of Guggenheim’s CDO Desk, was suspended for one year and fined $50,000; Timothy Day, a trader on Guggenheim’s CDO Desk, was suspended for four months and fined $20,000.

The traders deceived their customer and supported their scheme through the use of inaccurate books and records, all of which went undetected by the firm, according to FINRA.

In October 2008, as the result of a failed trade, Guggenheim’s CDO Desk acquired a €5,000,000 junk-rated tranche of a collateralized loan obligation (CLO). After unsuccessful attempts by Guggenheim’s CDO Desk to sell the position, Rekeda and Day persuaded a hedge fund customer to purchase the CLO for $950,000 more than it had previously agreed to pay by falsely presenting the CLO as part of a package of securities a third party offered for sale.

FINRA found that in an attempt to hide the trading loss on the CLO position, the traders provided the customer with order tickets that increased the price for the CLO position and decreased the price of the other positions that were part of the transaction. When the customer inquired about the pricing adjustments, Day, at Rekeda’s direction, lied and said a third-party seller of the CLO position had already settled the trade at a higher price and requested the customer pay this higher price.

The customer agreed to overpay for the CLO and in return, Day and Rekeda agreed to compensate the customer through other transactions, including pricing adjustments on six other CLO trades, a waiver of fees the customer owed in connection with resecuritization transactions, and a cash payment to the customer. The records created to document the transactions did not indicate any connection to the overpayment for the CLO.

FINRA found Guggenheim failed to conduct adequate review of the CDO Desk’s trades, documentation concerning transactions by traders on the desk, and the traders’ email communications.

In concluding the settlement, Guggenheim, Rekeda, and Day neither admitted nor denied the charges, but consented to the entry of FINRA’s findings. As part of the settlement, Guggenheim must retain an independent consultant to review and make recommendations concerning the adequacy of its supervisory procedures.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Investor Fraud Summit: Miami, October 12, 2012

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A Southeastern Regional Investor Fraud Summit will be held at Miami Dade College on Friday, October 12, 2012. Recent investment fraud prosecutions, fraud trends, fraud prevention, and testimony from investment fraud victims will be featured topics.

The Miami Investor Fraud Summit, one of several scheduled across the country, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with participation by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

The FBI reports an unprecedented rise in investment fraud schemes, involving thousands of victims and staggering losses. Since 2011, the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and 85 U.S. Attorneys’ offices have reported that approximately 800 defendants have been charged, tried, pleaded or sentenced in approximately 500 federal prosecutions involving investor fraud. The total reported amount cheated from victims for this time period tops more than $20 billion. This staggering number includes cases where the total amount victims lost range from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions, and, in some cases, billions in hard-earned savings.

Fraud avoidance is a goal of the seminars, which are designed to protect investors from losses due to fraud. In addition to the SEC, FINRA and the Department of Justice, participating agencies include the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Bankruptcy Trustees, AARP and the Better Business Bureau.

Miami Investor Fraud Summit Time and Location

Miami Dade College
Chapman Conference Center
245 N.E. Fourth Street, Bldg. 3, Room 3210
Miami, FL 33132

9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. EDT
Friday, October 12, 2012
Admission is FREE to the Public
Register by phone at 305-416-6211

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo Ferrer will host the summit that will feature Attorney General Eric Holder. They will be joined by U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Robert O’Neill, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Pamela Marsh, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance, Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office Eric Bustillo and other agency representatives.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Former Systemax Director, Miami, Charged in Compensation Scheme

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Gilbert Fiorentino, a former director of Systemax Inc. (“Systemax”), a Port Washington, N.Y.-based consumer electronics retailer, is the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil action for fraud and associated proposed settlement.

The Commission’s Complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that Gilbert Fiorentino, who in addition to serving on the board was the former chief executive of Systemax’s Technology Products Group in Miami, obtained over $400,000 in extra compensation directly from firms that conducted business with Systemax.

Fiorentino also stole several hundred thousand dollars worth of company merchandise that was used to market Systemax’s products online and in mail order catalogs.  Because Fiorentino was one of Systemax’s highest-paid executives, the federal securities laws required the company to disclose all compensation he received each fiscal year as well as his perks and other personal benefits.  Since Fiorentino failed to disclose his extra compensation and perks to Systemax or its auditors, the amounts were not reported to shareholders correctly.

Systemax placed Fiorentino on administrative leave in April 2011.  After the SEC began investigating the conduct, Fiorentino agreed to resign from all of his positions with Systemax, surrender stock and stock options valued at approximately $9.1 million, and repay his 2010 annual bonus of $480,000.

According to the SEC’s complaint, the misconduct occurred from January 2006 to December 2010.  Systemax sells personal computers and other consumer electronics through its websites, retail stores, and direct mail catalogs.  Fiorentino arranged the extra compensation as he dealt directly with external service providers, manufacturer representatives, and other entities that conducted business with Systemax.  For example, he demanded and received $5,000 to $10,000 monthly from an entity that supplied materials to Systemax’s subsidiaries for use in retail and mail order operations.

The SEC further alleges that through his executive position at Systemax, Fiorentino had access to company merchandise used to market Systemax products in mail order catalogs and online.  Fiorentino routinely misappropriated some of this merchandise and failed to disclose it to Systemax and its auditors.

According to the SEC’s complaint, as a result of Fiorentino’s actions, the information that Systemax filed with the SEC and provided to investors materially understated his compensation and omitted his personal financial interest in certain related-party transactions.  Fiorentino reviewed and signed each Systemax Form 10-K from fiscal year 2006 to 2010 while knowing that it failed to make the required disclosures.  Fiorentino also routinely signed management representation letters to Systemax’s independent auditors stating that he did not know of any fraud or suspected fraud involving Systemax’s management.

Fiorentino has consented to the entry of an injunctive order without admitting or denying the allegations in the Commission’s complaint.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation and Arbitration Attorney

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation and arbitration attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. He is an experienced securities litigation and arbitration attorney, and is available to assist individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms involved in securities matters. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Miami Brokers Defrauded Brazilian Public Pension Funds, Says SEC

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Two former LatAm Investments brokers overcharged customers $36 million by using hidden markup fees on structured notes transactions, according to SEC fraud charges.

Fabrizio Neves allegedly conducted the scheme while working at LatAm Investments LLC, a broker-dealer that is no longer in business. He was assisted by Jose Luna, says the SEC. The pair defrauded two Brazilian public pension funds and a Colombian institutional investor that purchased from LatAm the structured notes issued by major commercial banks.

To conceal the excessive markups that Neves charged customers, Neves directed Luna to alter the banks’ structured note term sheets in half of the transactions by either whiting out or electronically cutting and pasting the markup amounts over the actual price and trade information, and then sending the forged documents to customers. Neves and Luna further concealed the egregious markups in most transactions by first purchasing the notes into accounts in the name of nominee entities they controlled in the British Virgin Islands.

“Neves lined his pockets with millions of dollars by charging customers exorbitant, fraudulent markups,” said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “Neves and Luna thought they could hide their scheme and evade regulators by using offshore nominee companies and forged documents, but they thought wrong.”

The SEC also instituted an administrative proceeding against LatAm’s former president Angelica Aguilera, who was the direct supervisor over Neves and Luna. The SEC’s Enforcement Division alleges that Aguilera failed to reasonably supervise Neves and Luna and effectively follow or implement LatAm’s supervisory policies and procedures to ensure the fairness of markups and markdowns they charged to LatAm customers. As a result, Neves and Luna were able to carry out the fraudulent markup scheme undetected.

According to the SEC’s complaint against Neves and Luna filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Neves negotiated with several U.S. and European commercial banks to structure 12 notes on his customers’ behalf from 2006 to 2009. But instead of purchasing the notes for his customers’ accounts for prices around the banks’ issuance amounts – which totaled approximately $70 million – in most transactions Neves first traded the notes with one or more accounts in the name of offshore nominee entities that he and Luna controlled. Neves then sold the notes to his customers with undisclosed markups as high as 67 percent. Neves had no reasonable basis to mark up the prices that significantly.

The SEC alleges that as a result of the markup scheme, the Brazilian funds overpaid by approximately $24 million and the Colombian institutional investor overpaid by approximately $12 million due to the undisclosed, excessive fees. Neves enjoyed a financial boon from the scheme as LatAm paid him millions of dollars in inflated sales commissions for the structured note transactions that he made at inflated prices. Luna received hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated salary and commissions from LatAm and tens of thousands of dollars in additional compensation from a company that Neves controlled.

The SEC’s complaint seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, financial penalties, and injunctive relief against Neves to enjoin him from future violations of the federal securities laws.

Luna has agreed to the entry of a judgment ordering him to pay disgorgement of $923,704.85, prejudgment interest of $241,643.51, and a penalty amount to be determined. The judgment permanently enjoins him from violations of the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Luna neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the SEC’s complaint. Luna also agreed to settle a related SEC administrative proceeding by agreeing to be barred from association with any broker, dealer, investment advisor, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent, or credit rating agency.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation Attorney and FINRA Arbitrator

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. In addition to being an experienced securities litigation attorney, Mr. Kahn also serves as a FINRA arbitrator for individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Edward M. Laborio of Boca Charged in $5 Million Boiler Room Scheme

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A boiler room scheme that used high-pressure sales tactics to raise up to $5.7 million from 150 investors through the fraudulent sale of five unregistered securities offerings involving a group of related entities triggered SEC charges against Edward M. Laborio and others. The scheme ran from approximately December 2006 to August 2009.

Laborio, formerly of Boston, Massachusetts, is now a resident of Boca Raton, Florida. The SEC also charged Jonathan Fraiman of Lantana, Florida; Matthew K. Lazar of Westerville, Ohio; and seven entities controlled by Laborio: Envit Capital Group, Inc. (Envit Group); Envit Capital, LLC (Envit LLC); Envit Capital Holdings, Inc. (Envit Holdings); Envit Capital Private Wealth Management, LLC (Envit Wealth); Envit Capital Multi Strategy Mixed Investment Fund I LP (Envit Fund); Aetius Group PLC (Aetius PLC); and Aetius Group LLC (Aetius LLC) (collectively, the Envit Companies).

According to the Commission’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Laborio and Fraiman made multiple misrepresentations and misleading statements to investors about the Envit Companies’ businesses, revenues, financial projections, uses of investor funds, and historical returns generated by Envit Fund, a purported hedge fund that in reality never conducted any operations.

According to the complaint, Laborio also created scripts with sales pitches containing fabricated information. For example, one of Laborio’s scripts allegedly included unfounded claims that investors would receive quarterly dividends and “2-3x return on money.” Laborio also allegedly used investor proceeds to cover gambling losses, to make direct payments to himself, and to cover personal expenses. Fraiman allegedly represented to an investor that Envit Fund, the purported hedge fund, returned 42.9% in 2006 and 43.7% in 2007, even though the hedge fund was not launched until mid-2007 and never conducted any operations.

The complaint further alleges that Lazar raised $585,000 from approximately 10 investors through the sale of a PIPE (private investment in public equity) in Envit Group (one of the five unregistered securities offerings) by misrepresenting that the PIPE guaranteed an annual 8.5% dividend, and that it was safe, like a fixed annuity or a CD.

As a result of the conduct described in the complaint, the Commission alleges that all defendants violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; that Laborio, Fraiman, Lazar and Envit Wealth violated Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act); that Laborio, Fraiman, and Envit Wealth violated Advisers Act Section 206(4) and Rule 206(4)-8 thereunder; that Laborio, Fraiman, and Lazar violated Exchange Act Section 15(a)(1); that Laborio, Envit LLC, Envit Group, Envit Holdings, and Aetius PLC violated Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c); that Laborio violated Exchange Act Section 16(a) and Rule 16a-3 thereunder; and that Envit Fund and Aetius LLC violated Section 7(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The SEC seeks in its action permanent injunctions, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, penny stock bars against Laborio, Fraiman, and Lazar, and an officer and director bar against Laborio.

The Commission previously suspended trading in the securities of Envit Group in May 2009 and subsequently revoked the registration of the securities of Envit Group in September 2009.

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation Attorney and FINRA Arbitrator

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities or broker dispute. In addition to being an experienced securities litigation attorney, Mr. Kahn also serves as a FINRA arbitrator for individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

SEC Freezes Assets of Aubrey Lee Price for Florida, Georgia Scam

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A $40 million investment fraud by Aubrey Lee Price targeting Florida and Georgia investors has resulted in a court order freezing the assets of the Georgia-based investment adviser, who has apparently gone into hiding.

The SEC alleges that Aubrey Lee Price raised money from more than 100 investors living primarily in Georgia and Florida by selling shares in an unregistered investment fund (PFG) that he managed. Price purported to invest fund assets in traditional marketable securities, but he also made illiquid investments in South America real estate and a troubled South Georgia bank.

In order to conceal mounting losses of investor funds, Price created bogus account statements with false account balances and returns that were provided to investors and bank regulators.

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Price is believed to be a resident of Lowndes County in Georgia after moving from Manatee County, Florida.

The SEC alleges that Price began his scheme in 2008. According to PFG’s private placement memorandum, the investment objective was to achieve “positive total returns with low volatility” by investing in a variety of opportunities, including equity securities traded on the U.S. markets.

A significant portion of PFG investor funds – approximately $36.9 million – was placed in a securities trading account at a broker-dealer. The trading account suffered massive trading losses and money was frequently wire-transferred to PFG’s operating bank account. Throughout the time during which PFG suffered trading losses, client account statements prepared by Price were made available to investors indicating fictitious amounts of assets and investment returns.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Price has sent a letter to some individuals dated June 2012 and titled “Confidential Confession For Regulators – PFG, LLC and PFGBI, LLC Summary.” In the 22-page letter, Price admits that he “falsified statements with false returns” in order to conceal between $20 million and $23 million in investor losses.

The SEC’s complaint charged Price and his related companies, PFG, LLC; PFGBI, LLC; Montgomery Asset Management, LLC (Florida); and Montgomery Asset Management, LLC (Georgia) with violations of Section 10(b) and of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and further charged Price and Montgomery Asset Management, LLC (Florida) with violations of Sections 206(1), (2) and (4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-8 thereunder.

The Honorable Timothy C. Batten, Sr. granted the SEC’s request for a temporary restraining order and entered an asset freeze for the benefit of investors against Price, PFG, and his affiliated entities. Judge Batten has scheduled a court hearing on July 13, 2012 for the SEC’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

Anyone with information about Price’s whereabouts should contact the Atlanta office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at 404-679-9000 or the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office at 229-671-2985. [SEC v. Aubrey Lee Price, et al. Case No. 1:12-CV-2296 (N.D. Ga.)] (LR-22409)

Fort Lauderdale Securities Litigation Attorney and FINRA Arbitrator

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities dispute. In addition to being an experienced securities litigation attorney, Mr. Kahn also serves as a FINRA arbitrator for individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.

Miami Hedge Fund Adviser Charged with Misleading Investors

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Quantek Asset Management LLC deceived investors about fund managers having personal investments in the $1 billion Quantek Opportunity Fund, a Latin America-focused hedge fund, according to an SEC investigation.

The Securities and Exchange Commission found that Quantek’s executives never invested their own money in the fund. The SEC’s investigation also found that Quantek misled investors about the investment process of the funds it managed as well as certain related-party transactions involving its lead executive Javier Guerra and its former parent company Bulltick Capital Markets Holdings LP.

Bulltick, Guerra, and former Quantek operations director Ralph Patino are charged along with Quantek in the SEC’s enforcement action. They agreed to pay more than $3.1 million in total disgorgement and penalties to settle the charges, and Guerra and Patino agreed to securities industry bars.

“When making an investment decision, private fund investors are entitled to the unvarnished truth about material information such as management’s skin in the game or the adviser’s handling of related-party transactions,” said Bruce Karpati, Co-Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit. “Quantek’s investors deserved better than the misleading information they received in marketing materials, side letters, and other fund documents.”

According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings, fund investors frequently inquire about the extent of the manager’s personal investment during their due diligence process, and many require it in fund selection. Quantek, particularly Patino, misrepresented to investors from 2006 to 2008 that management had skin in the game. These misstatements were made when responding to specific questions posed in due diligence questionnaires that were used to market the funds to new investors. Quantek made similar misrepresentations in side letter agreements executed by Guerra with two sought-after institutional investors.

The SEC’s order also found that Quantek misled investors about certain related-party loans made by the fund to affiliates of Guerra and Bulltick. Because the fund permitted related-party transactions with Bulltick and other Quantek affiliates, investors were wary of deals that were not properly disclosed.

In 2006 and 2007, Quantek caused the fund to make related-party loans to affiliates of Guerra and Bulltick that were not properly documented or secured at the outset. Quantek and Bulltick employees later re-created the missing related-party loan documents, but misstated key terms of the loans and backdated the materials to give the appearance that the loans had been sufficiently documented and secured at all times. Quantek and Guerra provided this misleading loan information to the fund’s investors.

“The related-party transactions were problematic to begin with, and the false deal documents left investors in the dark about the adviser’s conflicts of interest,” said Scott Weisman, Assistant Director in the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit.

According to the SEC’s order, Quantek also repeatedly failed to follow the robust investment approval process it had described to investors in the fund. Quantek concealed this deficiency by providing investors with backdated and misleading investment approval memoranda signed by Guerra and other Quantek principals.

Quantek, Guerra, Bulltick, and Patino settled the charges without admitting or denying the findings. Quantek and Guerra agreed jointly to pay more than $2.2 million in disgorgement and pre-judgment interest, and to pay financial penalties of $375,000 and $150,000 respectively. Bulltick agreed to pay a penalty of $300,000, and Patino agreed to a penalty of $50,000.

Guerra consented to a five-year securities industry bar, and Patino consented to a securities industry bar of one year. Quantek and Bulltick agreed to censures. They all consented to orders that they cease and desist from committing or causing violations of certain antifraud, compliance, and recordkeeping provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Securities Act of 1933.

Florida Securities Litigation and FINRA Arbitration

Contact Fort Lauderdale securities litigation attorney Howard N. Kahn, Esq. if you or someone you know has a securities dispute. In addition to being an experienced securities litigation attorney, Mr. Kahn also serves as a FINRA arbitrator for individual investors, brokers, and brokerage firms. You can reach him at 954-321-0176 or online.