{"id":39284,"date":"2013-11-22T11:35:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=39284"},"modified":"2013-11-22T11:36:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:36:37","slug":"the-american-way-sec-charges-colorado-hedge-fund-trader-for-targeting-elderly-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/11\/2013\/the-american-way-sec-charges-colorado-hedge-fund-trader-for-targeting-elderly-investors.html","title":{"rendered":"The American Way: SEC Charges Colorado Hedge Fund Trader For Targeting Elderly Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tax-evasion\"<\/a>New York HedgeCo.Net – The SEC today charged a self-described institutional trader in Colorado with defrauding elderly investors into making purported investments in government-secured bonds as he used their money to pay his mortgage.<\/p>\n

The SEC alleges that Gary C. Snisky of Longmont, Colo., primarily targeted retired annuity holders by using insurance agents to sell interests in his company Arete LLC, which posed as a safe and more profitable alternative to an annuity.\u00a0 Investors were told their funds would be used to purchase government-backed agency bonds at a discount, and Snisky as an institutional trader would use the bonds to engage in overnight banking sweeps.\u00a0 However, Snisky did not purchase bonds or conduct any such trading, and he misappropriated approximately $2.8 million of investor funds to pay commissions to his salespeople and make personal mortgage payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith one hand Snisky ushered investors into a supposedly safe investment opportunity with guaranteed profits, and with the other hand he put investors\u2019 money into his own pocket,\u201d said Julie K. Lutz, director of the SEC\u2019s Denver Regional Office.<\/p>\n

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Colorado today announced criminal charges against Snisky.<\/p>\n

According to the SEC\u2019s complaint filed in federal court in Denver, Snisky raised at least $3.8 million from more than 40 investors in Colorado and several other states. Beginning in August 2011, Snisky recruited veteran insurance salespeople who could sell the Arete investment to their established client bases that owned annuities. The majority of investors in Arete used funds from IRAs or other retirement accounts.<\/p>\n

The SEC alleges that Snisky described Arete as an \u201cannuity-plus\u201d investment in which, unlike typical annuities, investors could withdraw principal and earned interest with no penalty after 10 years while still enjoying annuity-like guaranteed annual returns of 6 to 7 percent.\u00a0 Snisky emphasized the safety of the investment, calling himself an institutional trader who could secure government-backed agency bonds at a discount and save middleman fees. \u00a0Snisky\u2019s sales pitch was so convincing that even one of his salespeople personally invested retirement funds in Arete.<\/p>\n

The SEC alleges that Snisky created and provided all of the written documents that the hired salespeople used as offering materials to solicit investors.\u00a0 Snisky also showed salespeople fraudulent investor account statements purporting to show earnings from Arete\u2019s investment activity.\u00a0 Following an initial influx of investors, Snisky organized at least two seminars where he met with investors and salespeople.\u00a0 He introduced himself as the institutional trader behind Arete\u2019s success, and encouraged investors to spread the word.<\/p>\n

Learn from the best.<\/a><\/p>\n

Alex Akesson
\nFor HedgeCo.net
\nalex@hedgeco.net
\nHedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership in HedgeCo.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York HedgeCo.Net – The SEC today charged a self-described institutional trader in Colorado with defrauding elderly investors into making purported investments in government-secured bonds as he used their money to pay his mortgage. The SEC alleges that Gary C. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39284","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=39284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39286,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39284\/revisions\/39286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}