Andrew Caspersen, a 40-year-old Manhattan finance executive, was sentenced to four years in federal prison for orchestrating a brazen, years-long fraud that ripped off investors of more than $38 million and siphoned over $8 million from his own employer. Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the sentence today following a guilty plea in July 2016 to one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud in Manhattan federal court. U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff imposed the sentence, marking the end of a high-stakes deception that exploited trust, pedigreed connections, and the veneer of Wall Street legitimacy.
Caspersen, once a trusted advisor at Park Hill Group’s secondary advisory division, launched his scheme in November 2014 by pitching friends, family, college classmates, and even a charitable organization on ultra-lucrative private equity investments promising returns of 15 to 20 percent annually. He claimed the funds would be used for secured loans to established private equity firms. In reality, he funneled $38.5 million into shell company accounts he controlled, using the money to prop up a Ponzi-like operation—paying fake “interest” to earlier victims and funding personal securities trades. One charity alone wired $25 million, and Caspersen was angling for an additional $20 million just before his arrest.
To sell the lie, Caspersen went full con artist: he forged promissory notes, created fake entities with names nearly identical to real private equity funds, registered deceptive email addresses and domain names, and even stole the identities of two unsuspecting individuals to lend credibility to his fictional financiers. He set up bank accounts under these phony names and kept the scheme alive with a steady stream of lies, all while presenting himself as a reliable insider with exclusive access to high-yield deals.
But the fraud didn’t stop at investors. From January 2013 to March 2016, Caspersen exploited his position at Park Hill Group to divert approximately $8.9 million in client payments meant for legitimate advisory work. In July 2015, he opened a bank account under the name “PHG Operating LLC”—a fake entity unknown to the firm—and rerouted client payments there. He then transferred those funds into his personal brokerage account to make speculative trades. When the scheme began to unravel, he repaid the employer—using stolen money from his investor fraud.
At sentencing, Bharara didn’t mince words: “Using his Wall Street pedigree, Andrew Caspersen deceived and defrauded investors—including his own family and friends and a charity—out of tens of millions of dollars. Caspersen duped his unwitting victims through an elaborate scheme involving made-up private equity ventures, fake mail addresses, and fictional financiers.” He added, “Caspersen has admitted to his crimes and has now been sentenced to time in federal prison.”
In addition to his four-year prison term, Caspersen was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Judge Rakoff deferred ordering restitution to victims, with a decision expected at a later date. The case was brought by the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Bharara credited the investigative work of federal criminal investigators and acknowledged the Securities and Exchange Commission’s assistance in dismantling one of the most audacious financial frauds to emerge from Manhattan’s gilded corridors of finance in recent years.
Related Federal Cases
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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