TWO FLORIDA RESIDENTS CHARGED BY SEC IN ALLEGED MASSIVE PROMISSORY NOTE PONZI SCHEME

Photo:   American Alligator.  Credit:  U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service
FROM:  SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C., May 22, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two individuals who provided the biggest influx of investor funds into one of the largest-ever Ponzi schemes in South Florida.

The SEC alleges that George Levin and Frank Preve, who live in the Fort Lauderdale area, raised more than $157 million from 173 investors in less than two years by issuing promissory notes from Levin's company and interests in a private investment fund they operated. They used investor funds to purchase discounted legal settlements from former Florida attorney Scott Rothstein through his prominent law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler PA. However, the settlements Rothstein sold were not real and the supposed plaintiffs and defendants did not exist. Rothstein simply used the funds in classic Ponzi scheme fashion to make payments due other investors and support his lavish lifestyle. Rothstein's Ponzi scheme collapsed in October 2009, and he is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence.

The SEC alleges that Levin and Preve misrepresented to investors that they had procedural safeguards in place to protect investor money when in fact they often purchased settlements without first seeing any legal documents or doing anything to verify that the settlement proceeds were actually in Rothstein's bank accounts. Moreover, as the Ponzi scheme was collapsing and Rothstein stopped making payments on prior investments, Levin and Preve sought new investor money while falsely touting the continued success of their investment strategy. With their fate tied to Rothstein, Levin and Preve's settlement purchasing business collapsed along with the Ponzi scheme.

"Levin and Preve fueled Rothstein's Ponzi scheme with the false sense of security they gave investors," said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office. "They promised to safeguard investors' assets, but gave Rothstein money with nothing to show for it."

According to the SEC's complaint filed in federal court in Miami, Levin and Preve began raising money to purchase Rothstein settlements in 2007 by offering investors short-term promissory notes issued by Levin's company - Banyon 1030-32 LLC. In 2009, seeking additional funds from investors, they formed a private investment fund called Banyon Income Fund LP that invested exclusively in Rothstein's settlements. Banyon 1030-32 served as the general partner of the fund, and its profit was generated from the amount by which the settlement discounts obtained from Rothstein exceeded the rate of return promised to investors.

The SEC alleges that the offering materials for the promissory notes and the private fund contained material misrepresentations and omissions. They misrepresented to investors that prior to any settlement purchase, Banyon 1030-32 would obtain certain documentation about the settlements to ensure the safety of the investments. Levin and Preve, however, knew or were reckless in not knowing that Banyon 1030-32 often purchased settlements from Rothstein without obtaining any documentation whatsoever.

Furthermore, the SEC alleges that Banyon Income Fund's private placement memorandum misrepresented that the fund would be a continuation of a successful business strategy pursued by Banyon 1030-32 during the prior two-and-a-half years. Levin and Preve failed to disclose that by the time the Banyon Income Fund offering began in May 2009, Rothstein had already ceased making payments on a majority of the prior settlements Levin and his entities had purchased. They also failed to inform investors that Levin's ability to recover his prior investments from Rothstein was contingent on his ability to raise at least $100 million of additional funding to purchase more settlements from Rothstein.

The SEC's complaint seeks disgorgement of ill gotten gains, financial penalties, and permanent injunctive relief against Levin and Preve to enjoin them from future violations of the federal securities laws.

The SEC's investigation, which is continuing, has been conducted by senior counsels D. Corey Lawson and Steven J. Meiner and staff accountant Tonya T. Tullis under the supervision of Assistant Regional Director Chad Alan Earnst. Senior trial counsels James M. Carlson and C. Ian Anderson are leading the litigation.

The SEC acknowledges the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service.

SEC CHARGES APARTMENTS AMERICA AND ITS OWNERS IN SCHEME TO DEFRAUD INVESTORS

Photo:  Wikimedia
FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
May 11, 2012
On May 10, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a California-based real estate company and its owners with defrauding potential investors by boasting a false company track record to tout their purported real estate expertise while concealing the bankruptcy of their previous company.

The SEC alleges that Michael J. Stewart, John J. Packard, and Randall A. Smith created Apartments America, LLC to pool investor proceeds from an unregistered offering of securities and invest primarily in apartment buildings in Southern California and Arizona. They solicited potential investors through a website, Internet advertisements and postings, cold calls, solicitation letters, and advertising in a national newspaper. They boasted a track record of producing more than a 60 percent annual return on investment and creating more than $100 million in net equity.

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Orange County, California, what potential investors did not know is that Apartments America was a new company with no assets and no track record. Stewart, Packard, and Smith were merely using the same investment strategy and selective statistics from their prior bankrupt company that had defaulted on $91.6 million in promissory notes held by 647 investors.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Stewart lives in San Clemente, California, and Packard and Smith each live in Long Beach, California. Together they formed Apartments America in September 2009, just three months after Pacific Property Assets (PPA) filed for bankruptcy. Stewart and Packard owned PPA and Smith worked for them. In the months prior to defaulting on its promissory notes, PPA was actively soliciting investor funds and promising an annual interest rate of 24 to 30 percent.

The SEC alleges that under Apartments America, whose securities have never been registered with the SEC, Stewart, Packard, and Smith similarly solicited investor funds with the same plan to purchase apartment buildings. But they engaged in a concerted scheme to distance themselves from PPA and its bankruptcy. In communications to potential investors, they selectively and misleadingly used some of PPA’s historic investments and touted them as Apartments America data. For instance, they arrived at their fabricated statistic of a 60 percent annual return on investment by cherry-picking PPA’s successful property investments while omitting the losses incurred on more than 50 properties in PPA’s portfolio at the time of its bankruptcy. Stewart, Packard, and Smith also misrepresented that they had created more than $100 million in net equity by calculating some of PPA’s property investments while omitting information about its bankruptcy and the losses on its bankrupt properties. They also falsely represented to potential investors that they were managing a property portfolio valued at more than $200 million when that in fact referred to PPA’s bankrupt property portfolio, which was actually being managed by the bankruptcy trustee.