United States Attorney Laura Duffy
announced that today United States District Court Judge Irma E. Gonzalez
sentenced John Clement, age 65, a resident of Encinitas, California, to serve
24 months in custody for his participation in a scheme to defraud investors out
of more than $4.9 million through his operation of a Ponzi scheme under the
name Edgefund Capital LLC (“Edgefund”). Clement was also ordered to pay $4.9
million in restitution and to serve three years’ supervised release.
According to court records, Clement pled
guilty in September 2011 to a criminal information charging him with one count
of wire fraud. According to admissions in a plea agreement and other court
records, beginning in March 2007, Clement falsely represented to investors that
Edgefund was a successful hedge fund that specialized in trading stocks on a
daily basis and that investors would make between 1.5 percent and 2 percent per
month with little or no risk involved. Clement also falsely induced investors
not to withdraw their funds or to send money to Edgefund, and not to withdraw
their funds, by issuing false account statements indicating that investors were
routinely earning substantial positive returns when, in fact, Clement knew that
the high returns paid to investors came from new investor money and not from
profits.
United States Attorney Duffy praised the
efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who conducted this
investigation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment