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The United States government has extradited a man from Australia to face charges related to an investment scheme that allegedly defrauded investors of millions of dollars.
The Western District of North Carolina’s U.S. Attorney, Dena J. King, announced that “Gustavo Guzman, 59, a former resident of Fullerton, California, made his first appearance in federal court in Charlotte on November 7 after being deported from Australia to face charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, and transactional money laundering in connection with an alleged $2 million investment fraud scheme.”
The Securities Division of the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State and the FBI in Charlotte jointly investigated the matter. A simultaneous investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission led to the entry of a default judgment against Guzman in Civil Action No. 3:17-cv-00276 (WDNC).
The indictment claimed that “between April 2010 and August 2015, Gustavo A. Guzman raised more than $2.1 million from investors for a purported equity options fund and a real estate fund he managed. The complaint further alleges that Guzman misappropriated approximately a third of the investors’ money, using it to pay himself and his expenses and make Ponzi payments to some investors.”
Guzman is accused of stealing a massive percentage of the investors’ money and using it to finance his lifestyle, including making sizable credit card payments, cash withdrawals, and personal expenses, instead of investing the funds as promised.
The indictment also claimed that “Guzman misled his victims about the status of their investments and gave them phony documents, including bogus IRS forms and false account statements, to conceal the trading losses and the fraudulent scheme, as well as to stop them from withdrawing their investments and filing complaints with the authorities.”
Currently, Guzman is under federal arrest. The term for the wire fraud charge is up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
The allegations made in the indictment are charges. In a legal proceeding, a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
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