Andrew Caspersen, Securities Fraud & Wire Fraud, New York 2016

Andrew Caspersen, a 40-year-old former finance executive from Manhattan, has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a massive securities fraud and wire fraud scheme that defrauded investors out of over $38 million and misappropriated over $8 million from his former employer, the Park Hill Group.

According to court documents, Caspersen engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme to defraud investors, including close friends, family members, and college classmates, by falsely claiming that their funds would be used to make secured loans to private equity firms and would thereby earn an annual rate of return of 15 to 20 percent.

Casperen’s scheme was elaborate and involved made-up private equity ventures, fake mail addresses, and fictional financiers. He even set up fake entities with names resembling those of real private equity funds and opened bank accounts in the names of those shell companies.

Investors were wired a total of approximately $38.5 million to shell company bank accounts controlled by Caspersen. Among those defrauded was a charitable organization, which made a $25 million purported investment with Caspersen, and which Caspersen solicited for an additional $20 million shortly before his arrest.

Casperen used investor funds for purposes that investors had not authorized, including to make securities trades in his own brokerage account and to make periodic interest payments to earlier investors.

Casperen’s scheme was not limited to defrauding investors. He also misappropriated over $8 million from his former employer, the Park Hill Group, by directing clients to wire payment to a fake bank account that he controlled.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara praised the work of the Office’s criminal investigators and thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for its assistance in the case.

Casperen’s sentence includes four years in prison and three years of supervised release. Judge Jed S. Rakoff will order restitution at a later date.

Related Federal Cases