New York (HedgeCo.Net) – The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a Manhattan-based attorney with conducting a Ponzi scheme that defrauded some of his legal clients as well as close family members and friends.
The SEC alleges that Charles A. Bennett raised approximately $5 million by selling purported investments in what he described as a pool of funds that invested in joint ventures with a Wyoming-based investment fund to which he claimed to have a close connection.
Bennett told investors their money would largely be used to fund investments in European real estate mortgage-backed securities yielding lucrative rates of return ranging anywhere from 6 to 25 percent over short periods of time. He stated that prominent individuals including a former governor of New York were participating in these investment ventures.
Last month, Bennett composed a lengthy handwritten note admitting to his fraudulent conduct and left it in a Manhattan hotel room. He then jumped into the Hudson River and was later rescued.
While the fund does exist and Bennett is an acquaintance of the manger, he had no connection to the fund and made no investments at all, instead secretly misappropriating all of the money he raised from investors. Bennett used funds from newer investors to pay redemptions and make phony “interest” payments to earlier investors, and he siphoned away investor money to support his own lifestyle that included vacations, expensive hotels, and substantial cash withdrawals.
“Bennett falsely portrayed that he was closely associated with a Wyoming-based fund and would provide substantial rates of return to investors, but he was simply keeping the cash for himself and using it to perpetuate his Ponzi scheme,” said Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.
Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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