Louis F. Petrossi, Securities Fraud, New York 2018

Investment Adviser Sentenced to 100 Months in Prison for Stealing Investors’ Money

New York – Louis F. Petrossi, the founder and president of the Wealth Research Institute, a purported investment research firm, was sentenced to 100 months and three days in prison for stealing investors’ money. The sentence will run concurrent with his 44-month sentence received in the Eastern District of New York in May 2017 for his role in the ForceField Energy Inc. securities fraud scheme.

Petrossi was found guilty of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, and wire fraud by a federal jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania on March 8, 2018. He was ordered to pay $2,265,735.84 in restitution and $1,170,940 in forfeiture.

Petrossi solicited more than $1.8 million in investments in one of his “Chadwicke” funds from more than 25 investors, including an investor residing in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He promoted Chadwicke as an opportunity to invest in high-profile startup companies such as Lyft, Inc., Maplebear Inc., Pinterest Inc., Spotify Technology SA, and Palantir Technologies, Inc., among others.

Petrossi invested approximately $665,400 in privately held startup companies but used more than $1.1 million in investor funds to pay for personal expenses, including payment for his BMW, renovations to his home, and payment of his legal fees. Despite being prohibited from employment “directly involving the handling of investors” under the terms of his pre-trial release, Petrossi continued to engage in the Chadwicke scheme.

“Petrossi abused the trust placed in him by investors, many of whom reported that they suffered significant loss of savings for retirement and education expenses as a result of his scheme. With today’s sentence, Petrossi has been held responsible for misappropriating more than $1 million of investor funds for his personal use – a fraud he carried out while on pre-trial release for a related criminal case in the Eastern District of New York,” stated United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mark E. Bini of the Eastern District of New York’s Business and Securities Fraud Section and Special Assistant United States Attorney John O. Enright of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division.

LOUIS F. PETROSSI, 77, of Reno, Nevada, was sentenced to 100 months and three days in prison for stealing investors’ money. He was also ordered to pay $2,265,735.84 in restitution and $1,170,940 in forfeiture.

Related Federal Cases