Fred Elm, Securities Fraud, New York 2020
Fred Elm, the founder of Elm Tree Investment Advisors LLC, will spend the next seven years behind bars for his role in a massive securities fraud scheme that defrauded over 50 investors out of $18 million.
Elm, whose full name is Fred Elmaleh, was sentenced to 85 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos on May 15, 2020 for his crimes, which included conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud.
The scheme, which operated from June 2013 to December 2014, saw Elm and his co-conspirator, Ahmad Naqvi, promise investors enormous returns on investments in pre-IPO shares of companies like Twitter, Alibaba, and Uber.
Instead, the majority of the $18 million was misappropriated for personal use, lost through poor trading, or used to repay investors in a Ponzi-like fashion.
Elm and Naqvi came under investigation after it was discovered that they had converted investor funds to their own use, including cash withdrawals and purchases of luxury items such as a Bentley, a Maserati, and a Range Rover.
The two men falsely represented to investors that they and ETIA would take a two percent annual management fee plus a performance fee of 20 percent of any profits that the Elm Tree Funds earned.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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