Tampa Man Charged with Wire Fraud in Investment Scam

A Tampa man has been charged with wire fraud for masterminding an investment scam while on federal supervised release, announced United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III.

Anthony J. Klatch, II, 35, of Tampa, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

According to court documents, in or around 2011, Klatch pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in the Southern District of Alabama. After his release from federal prison in December 2014, Klatch began serving a term of supervised release in Tampa.

While on supervised release, Klatch directed the establishment of and controlled a company called Assurance Capital Management, LLC, and maintained a bank account at Chase Bank opened in the name of ACM. Between June and September 2015, Klatch used ACM to represent to investors and potential investors that ACM was a company with over $18 million in client assets under management and that ACM and those working for ACM engaged in profitable online stock trading on behalf of its investors.

‘In executing his scheme, Klatch would often disguise his true identity and tell investors that his name was ‘Larry Heim,’ ACM’s fund manager,’ said the indictment. ‘Klatch, often posing as ‘Larry Heim,’ provided investors and potential investors false and fraudulent financial statements and other investment materials showing that ACM was profitable and had more than $18 million in online trading accounts and that its funds were profitably traded.’

Klatch obtained funds from investors by directing them to wire funds to the ACM account at Chase Bank so those funds could be invested and/or traded. Klatch also directed investors to provide him with the access information for their online trading accounts, such as user name and password, so that he, often posing as ‘Larry Heim,’ could trade those accounts on behalf of the investors.

A complaint is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mandy Riedel.

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