Accused Scammer And Convicted Felon Eric Aronson, 2 Others Indicted In Alleged Permapave Ponzi Scheme; ‘House Of Cards,’ Top Federal Prosecutor Says

Eric Aronson, the accused New York scammer and convicted felon originally arrested in October 2011 in an alleged Ponzi scheme, now has been formally indicted, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said.

Charged along with Aronson with conspiracy, securities fraud and money laundering were Vincent Buonauro and Fredric Aaron. Aaron is an attorney from Port Washington, N.Y. In a related civil action by the SEC in October 2011, his age was listed as 47.

In the same civil complaint last year, the SEC listed Aronson’s age as 43. He is a resident of Syosset, N.Y., according to SEC filings. Buonauro was described in the same October 2011 SEC complaint as a 40-year-old  resident of West Islip, N.Y.

The men allegedly were principals in Permapave Industries and Permapave USA, which the SEC described as a $26 million Ponzi scheme involving paving stones purportedly imported from Australia.

“The defendants are alleged to have misled investors and, in paying some of them with proceeds from others, engaged in a Ponzi scheme to conceal how flimsy the investment was,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office.

‘House Of Cards’

“The defendants allegedly abused the trust placed in them by their investors by lying and stealing the investors’ money,” U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch said.  “They promised a sound investment in a quality product, but instead shuttled the investors from one deceptive securities offering to another in an attempt to maintain their house of cards.”

Aronson is a convicted felon who used proceeds from the Permapave scheme to pay restitution to victims of a scheme to which “he pleaded guilty to conducting in 2000? and was sentenced to 40 months in prison, the SEC said last year.