A former hedge-fund manager was sentenced for more than 15 years because he cheated his clients out of $5 million. Aleksander Efrosman, 51, fled the U.S. with his clients money and gambled most of it away at casinos. He was extradited from Poland and plead guilty to wire fraud in 2012. He was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, in Brooklyn, New York and received 188 months in jail and ordered to pay $4 million in restitution.
“Efrosman has finally been held to account for his betrayal of his clients’ trust,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn said in a statement. The former hedge-fund manager had been “globe-trotting to escape justice.” He admitted running a scheme to cheat over a hundred clients out of $5 million in 2004 and 2005.
Efrosman is a U.S. citizen, so it was very easy for him to travel around the world. He traveled to Panama, Mexico. Using a fake Russian passport he went to Poland where he changed his name to Mikhail Grosman, Lynch said.
The statement also says Efrosman was tracked down and arrested in Krakow, Poland on May 28, 2010 by law enforcement from Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Efrosman’s federal public defender, Michael Schneider was trying to get just ten years for his clients crimes, citing Efrosman’s “undiagnosed mental illness in his criminal conduct, his failing health and the harsh nature of his confinement” in Poland and New York according to letter filed in court January 10th.
According to the government, he was telling his investors that he would put their money in the stock market and foreign-currency exchange market. He claimed to have a good history trading and that he would use the “stop-loss” mechanism to make sure no trade would lose more than 3 percent.
Efrosman, formerly of Staten Island, New york, ran a third investment scheme while in Panama. He also fled the U.S. after leaving prison in 2003 while under supervision. He pleaded guilty after being extradited from France.
Summary:
Aleksander Efrosman, 51, fled the U.S. with his clients money and gambled most of it away at casinos. He was extradited from Poland and plead guilty to wire fraud in 2012.
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