4 nabbed in plan to scam investor
The funds invested allegedly were used for personal gain
Federal agents arrested four people yesterday in connection with an alleged $100 million fraud scheme.
Sayed Qadri, president and chief executive officer of Amasse Capital LLC, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi yesterday.
Federal prosecutors said they believe he is a flight risk, and will ask the court to detain him without bail at a hearing Thursday.
Also arrested were Patricia Roszkowski, the chief financial officer, Jeffrey Greenhut, the chief operating officer, and Ruben Gonzalez Carillo, also known as Ruben Carillo.
Charges include wire fraud and filing a false credit application fraud.
According to an indictment unsealed yesterday, the suspects tried to get an investor to give them $100 million by claiming he would receive annual returns of at least 60 percent, and possibly 100 percent to 400 percent monthly rates of return.
Quadri and other officers of the company said they were involved in a large-volume bond trading company that produced the high rate of return, prosecutors said.
To induce investments, the defendants allegedly told the investor the company generally traded about $500 million in two days and could trade up to $10 billion per month.
However, the indictment alleges the investor's money was used for the personal benefit of the defendants and that the company actually made "an extremely limited amount of investments, and in fact incurred losses from bond trading."
The four claimed that the investment in their company was "risk-free or guaranteed and that there was no way to lose money," according to court papers. The scheme allegedly began in January and continued through August in Hawaii and elsewhere.
The defendants also allegedly falsely represented to the investor that they had extensive financial management and investment experience, which they did not.
Roszkowski is accused of making a false statement to Bank of Hawaii on a credit card application that Solomon & Co. was receiving $10 million in gross revenue with $1 million in net profit and that she owned a home at 814 Kealaolu Avenue, which she did not, the indictment said. She allegedly made an identical false statement regarding Amasse Capital to the same bank on a credit card application.
The indictment does not state the relationship of Solomon & Co. to Amasse Capital. However, Solomon & Co. LLC, according to state business registration online information, lists the company's officers as nearly identical to Amasse's.