Authorities arrested a Florida man for allegedly swindling over $600,000 from 11 traders, in line with New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James.
James claimed Marc Henry Menard’s three-year securities fraud scheme focused traders from Haitian communities in New York, Florida and Georgia. Menard was arrested in Dawn, Fla. this week and indicted on 24 countstogether with grand larceny and securities fraud.
“Menard handled himself to luxurious holidays and purchasing journeys at his victims’ expense, and now we’re bringing him to justice,” James stated.
In keeping with James, beginning in July 2020, Menard started soliciting Haitians in Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Queens counties in New York, in addition to in Florida and Georgia. Menard touted month-to-month returns between 12% and 20%, and though he wasn’t registered to promote securities, he informed traders he was an skilled dealer in shares and crypto.
After soliciting traders, Menard allegedly positioned a few of their funds into his personal private buying and selling accounts, which he’d use for dangerous buying and selling choices, together with day buying and selling and choices buying and selling, which misplaced him over $670,000 between July 2021 and October 2022.
In keeping with James, Menard additionally spent a whole bunch of hundreds of victims’ funds to repay earlier traders, over $100,000 on journeys to Turkey, Puerto Rico and Disney World, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz, a 2022 BMW, and purchases at Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
To fulfill traders’ questions, Menard allegedly concocted an ATM receipt exhibiting an $8 million account stability and a pretend buying and selling display screen exhibiting internet account values over $1 million.
However the Lawyer Basic’s workplace discovered that between July 2021 and October 2022, Mernard’s highest internet worth within the buying and selling account was $240,000, whereas the checking account stability solely reached $301,000.
Neither Menard nor counsel representing him may very well be reached for remark previous to publication.
Menard was launched with weekly reporting necessities, was ordered to give up his passport and isn’t allowed to journey outdoors of New York and Florida pending trial. If he’s convicted of the highest costs, Menard may face as a lot as 15 years in jail.
Final June, the Securities and Change Fee additionally charged Menardalleging he’d defrauded at the very least 50 people (primarily within the Haitian neighborhood) of at the very least $1.65 million.