North Carolina Man Michael Anthony Jenkins Faces Civil and Criminal Charges for Solicitation Fraud, Misappropriation, and Embezzlement in Ponzi Scheme
A Raleigh man faces civil and criminal charges for the operation of an alleged Ponzi scheme that authorities say defrauded approximately 377 investors out of at least $1.79 million. The alleged investment scheme ran from at least Jan. 2011 through Jan. 2012, and involved the sale and trade of E-mini S&P 500 futures contracts.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the filing of its civil Complaint against Michael Anthony Jenkins and his company, Harbor Light Asset Management, LLC (HLAM), last week.
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According to the Complaint, Jenkins and HLAM falsely represented to investors that investments with the company would be used exclusively to purpose E-mini futures contracts and that investor funds would be wired immediately to a specific trading account upon investment.
However, instead of doing as they represented, Jenkins and HLAM allegedly misappropriated $1.16 million of investors’ funds and used the money for Jenkins’ personal purposes. Almost three-quarters of a million dollars allegedly was used to trade gold and oil futures, stock index futures, and E-mini futures in Jenkins’ personal accounts. The rest was used to pay for cellular phone bills, airline tickets, gas, and department store charges, according to the Complaint.
The Complaint further accuses Jenkins and HLAM of attempting to cover up the fraudulent scheme by issuing falsified trading spreadsheets and statements to investors.
The Securities Division of the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State indicted Jenkins on similar charges of securities fraud on Aug. 20, 2012. He is currently in custody awaiting trial. For additional information, read the CFTC’s press release here.
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