A 75-year-old New Jersey investment adviser was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of operating a fake Ponzi-like company to lure investors.
The SEC filed the complaint in San Francisco Federal Court, alleging John Bivona of raising $53.4 million since Oct. 2013, Reuters reports. Bivona allegedly collected the funds through his his firms Saddle River Advisors LLC and SRA Management Associates LLC that have a reported assets of $139.4 million in March 2015. SEC reported that the New Jersey investment adviser pledged to capitalize on early- to late-stage technology companies. These companies include Square Inc, Box Inc, Bloom Energy, Twitter Inc, Dropbox Inc and Palantir Technologies Inc.
The SEC alleged that the New Jersey investment adviser used the investor's funds as a "personal slush fund," according to Yahoo. Furthermore, the SEC claimed that Bivona funneled $5.7 million to his own account and to his other family members. The investment money was reportedly used to pay various bills of the New Jersey investment adviser and his family members including credit card bills, taxes, and a mortgage for a Jersey Shore vacation home.
Bivona, a New York state bar member sent the fiddled funds to his nephew Frank Mazzola. It was not the first time that the New Jersey investment adviser faced a fraud case against the SEC. In March 2014, Mazzola was fined and was banned from the industry by the SEC due to a fraud case involving his now-closed Felix Investments. The company was managed by Bivona during the time. The SEC is now demanding to recover impose civil fines, ill-gotten gains, and assert an emergency asset freeze against the New Jersey investment adviser.
As of this late, the lawyer for Bivona, Jahan Raissi said that there's no basis for emergency freezing of Bovina's assets. He claimed that SEC know for a fact the activities of Saddle River that Bivona manages. The SEC hasn't commented yet.
