{"id":38962,"date":"2013-11-06T04:24:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T09:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=38962"},"modified":"2013-11-06T11:01:05","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T16:01:05","slug":"sec-freezes-usnew-zealand-ponzi-schemes-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/11\/2013\/sec-freezes-usnew-zealand-ponzi-schemes-funds.html","title":{"rendered":"SEC Freezes US\/New Zealand Ponzi Scheme&#8217;s Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/OB-JB329_sec062_G_20100628203904.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-17041\" alt=\"SEC\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/OB-JB329_sec062_G_20100628203904.jpg\" width=\"234\" height=\"214\" \/><\/a>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; The SEC taken action to freeze the assets of Ponzi scheme involving U.S. and New Zealand-based companies peddling sham investment opportunities ranging from a bank trading program to kidney dialysis clinics.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher A.T. Pedras, who has residences in Turlock, Calif., and New Zealand, misled his initial investors when his hedge fund\u00a0encountered problems paying the promised 4 to 8% monthly returns. Pedras began steering investors to a different investment program to purportedly increase the value of their investment by 80% by funding kidney dialysis clinics in New Zealand. However,\u00a0the money was never invested as promised.\u00a0 Earlier investors were paid supposed returns with funds received from newer investors, and Pedras stole more than $2 million and spent another $1.2 million on sales agents.\u00a0The SEC alleges that the Ponzi scheme paid investors more than $2.4 million in \u201creturns\u201d using new investor money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRather than conducting any legitimate business activity, Pedras and his partners were simply operating a Ponzi scheme that was ultimately doomed to collapse,\u201d said Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC\u2019s Los Angeles Regional Office.\u00a0 \u201cThis emergency action stops them from fraudulently raising any more money from U.S. investors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pedras raised more than $5.6 million from at least 50 investors in the U.S. since July 2010 by selling securities in two phases, the SEC says.<\/p>\n<p>According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, during at least one conference call, Pedras advised investors not to respond if contacted by the SEC.\u00a0 He characterized SEC investor questionnaires as \u201cfake\u201d and stated that the SEC\u2019s investigation was motivated by a \u201cpersonal vendetta\u201d against him.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Akesson<br \/>\nEditor for\u00a0<a title=\"hedge funds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\">HedgeCo.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"mailto:alex@hedgeco.net\">alex@hedgeco.net<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\">HedgeCo.Net<\/a>\u00a0is a premier\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund database\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\">hedge fund database<\/a>\u00a0and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\">HedgeCo.net<\/a>\u00a0is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for\u00a0<a title=\"hedge fund\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/\">Hedge Funds<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York (HedgeCo.Net) &#8211; The SEC taken action to freeze the assets of Ponzi scheme involving U.S. and New Zealand-based companies peddling sham investment opportunities ranging from a bank trading program to kidney dialysis clinics. Christopher A.T. Pedras, who has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedge-fund-fraud","category-hedgeco-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38966,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38962\/revisions\/38966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}