A 23-year-old immigrant from India is in a world of hurt after state cops nabbed him for running an audacious Ponzi racket that bamboozled investors out of over $400,000 in Alabama.
Pathyam “Pat” Patel, who hails from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India, was collared on March 6th and slapped with nine counts for breaking pretty much every securities law on the books. Prosecutors say the young con man wove an elaborate fiction to trick victims into forking over fat stacks of cash.
“This punk sold north of $400K worth of bogus investment contracts to at least six marks,” blasted Amanda Senn, the hard-nosed chief prosecutor for the Alabama Securities Commission. “He flashed some BS about being tied to a registered investment advisory firm called Infinity Wealth Management and fed them a line about being able to rake in massive paydays risk-free.”
But the so-called “Infinity Wealth Management” didn’t exist as a legit registered firm, according to the fuzz. Patel dreamed up the whole fantasy operation and executed the crafty scheme completely solo while camped out in ‘Bama.
The Hoaxster’s Hustle
Instead of actually investing the funds like he promised his pigeons, authorities allege Patel just straight-up pocketed the cash from new recruits to pay out “returns” to earlier saps who fell for his schtick. He also blew wads on personal expenses like gambling his ill-gotten winnings away.
“This punk didn’t invest a damn dime like he claimed,” prosecutor Senn railed. “He just used the money for his own kicks – hitting the sports books, bankrolling his lavish lifestyle, and paying out other poor schmoes in classic Ponzi fashion.”
By design, these house-of-cards schemes need a constant stream of new chumps contributing funds to paper over the earlier fabrications. They always eventually crumble when there’s no new money coming in to prop them up anymore. Authorities say Patel never had any actual way to legitimately generate the sky-high investment profits he promised.
“Patel couldn’t back up his guarantees that nobody would lose their principal,” said Senn. “That was just a bald-faced lie to rope more folks into his twisted little game.”
The sleazy grifter even had the audacity to shake down his victims for extra fees he claimed were needed to “maintain their investment holdings,” further bleeding them dry.
Long Rap Sheet of Fraud
While the total $400K haul is relatively paltry compared to some of the bigger-money Ponzi capers, the case underscores how financial fraud remains an ever-present risk that regulators have to vigilantly combat.
The Alabama Securities Commission, which oversees areas like licensing investment advisers and policing securities scams, says busting up these “affinity fraud” schemes that prey on ethnic communities is a top priority.
“We’ve seen too many of these Ponzi debacles where the fraudsters cynically target their own communities first and try exploiting those built-in trust networks,” said Senn. “That’s why it’s critically important for all investors to remain skittish and verify every last detail before forking over a single penny.”
Lessons from the Con
Investor education pushed by watchdogs like the Securities and Exchange Commission advises people to always exhaustively vet the bona fides, registrations and performance of anyone peddling investment opportunities. Hallmark red flags include promises of wild profits with zero risk and any investment scheme lacking transparency about real underlying assets or strategies.
If convicted, Patel could end up buried under a mountain of fines and eating prison gruel for years for orchestrating his intricate hustle in violation of Alabama’s strict securities statutes. His case will likely drag through the courts for months to come.
The high-profile arrest puts other would-be Ponzi punks on notice – regulators are laser-focused on sniffing out and prosecuting alleged fraudsters, no matter how small the initial scams or what tricks they employ to try separating hard-working folks from their nest eggs.
