Authorities arrested a Florida man for allegedly swindling over $600,000 from 11 buyers, in keeping with New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James.
James claimed Marc Henry Menard’s three-year securities fraud scheme focused buyers from Haitian communities in New York, Florida and Georgia. Menard was arrested in Dawn, Fla. this week and indicted on 24 counts, together with grand larceny and securities fraud.
“Menard handled himself to luxurious holidays and buying journeys at his victims’ expense, and now we’re bringing him to justice,” James stated.
Based on 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 advised buyers he was an skilled dealer in shares and crypto.
After soliciting buyers, 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.
Based on James, Menard additionally spent a whole bunch of hundreds of victims’ funds to repay earlier buyers, 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 buyers’ questions, Menard allegedly concocted an ATM receipt displaying an $8 million account steadiness and a faux buying and selling display screen displaying 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 steadiness solely reached $301,000.
Neither Menard nor counsel representing him might 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 exterior of New York and Florida pending trial. If he’s convicted of the highest fees, Menard might face as a lot as 15 years in jail.
Final June, the Securities and Alternate Fee additionally charged Menard, alleging he’d defrauded at the very least 50 people (primarily within the Haitian neighborhood) of at the very least $1.65 million.
