David Ross, a former Wellington New Zealand advisor, pleaded guilty to five charges of false accounting and theft in running a $300 million Ponzi scheme, the country's largest in its history, the Associated Press reported.
Ross has been jailed since late June and will remain in custody until October 24 when a sentencing date will be set, Bloomberg reported. Regulators indicated that 200 investors lost paper returns of more than 380 million New Zealand dollars, or approximately $296 million (US) in the scheme.
Ross began managing funds in 1989, but reportedly began running the Ponzi scheme in the middle part of 2000.
Ross's authorization to act as a financial advisor ended last year, as his company Ross Asst Management was forced into bankruptcy, the AP also reported. Ross made false reported investments, which resulted in an "overstatement of $296 million."
More than 1,200 accounts were affected by the scheme, Bloomberg added.
"While a guilty plea does not address the significant losses incurred by a large number of victims, it will bring some relief to those victims," SFO Acting Chief Executive Simon McArley said in the statement.
Ross also pleaded guilty to Financial Markets Authority charges of providing financial services when unregistered and making false declarations to obtain an authorization.
The millionaire faces up to 10 years in prison, news reports said.
U.S. investor and white collar criminal Bernie Madoff is languishing in jail after pleading guilty to 11 federal felonies in a massive Ponzi scheme in 2009, which defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Federal investigators believe the fraud that Madoff orchestrated began as early as the 1970s.
