Former Wall Street Trader Pleads Guilty To Running A Ponzi Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that PAUL A. RINFRET pled guilty to participating in a Ponzi scheme in which he obtained approximately $19 million in total from victims through a variety of lies and misrepresentations. RINFRET pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Paul Rinfret callously lied to investors at every step. He lied about his past returns to get them to invest. He lied about having invested all of their money, when he was actually spending much of it on things like jewelry, cars, and a house in the Hamptons. To keep investors appeased, Rinfret lied about how their money was growing. Today, Rinfret has admitted to his scheme, through which he obtained approximately $19 million, and now faces a prison term for his lies.”

According to the allegations contained in the Complaint and the Indictment:

From at least 2016 through 2019, RINFRET engaged in a scheme to defraud potential and actual investors in an entity called Plandome Partners L.P. for his own personal gain and for the gain of his family members. RINFRET offered potential investors the ability to invest in Plandome Partners through the purchase of limited partnership interests. In soliciting investments, RINFRET falsely represented to potential and actual investors (the “Victims”) that he would use all of their investment funds to trade futures contracts tied to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index using a propriety trading algorithm he had developed, taking for himself a fee equivalent to 25% of the net profits on the trades.

Through his fraudulent scheme, RINFRET obtained approximately $19 million in total from approximately six Victims on the false claim that he would utilize their investment funds for trading. RINFRET’s lies and misrepresentations were varied and many. For example, RINFRET claimed that Plandome Partners traded through certain brokerage accounts, one of which simply did not exist, and two of which were not open at a time when RINFRET claimed to be trading in those accounts.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-wall-street-trader-pleads-guilty-running-ponzi-scheme