SEC: Payday loan scheme bilks investors out of millions

MIAMI -- The owner of a Miami-based payday loan company bilked hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars and repaid others with money he acquired from a Ponzi scheme, according to a newspaper report and federal regulators.

About 500 investors, many from South Florida’s Venezuelan American community, were taken in by Efrain Betancourt Jr.'s sales pitch of high-interest returns on their investments in his short-term loan operation Sky Group USA, the Miami Herald reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in Miami filed a lawsuit against Betancourt, 33, and his company in September, the report noted. The agency accuses Betancourt of committing securities violations in a scheme that authorities describe as “affinity fraud.”

In addition to the SEC complaint, a half-dozen other lawsuits and arbitration cases have been filed against Betancourt, according to the newspaper. He has not been criminally charged.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/sec-payday-loan-scheme-bilks-investors-millions-81970281