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Tag: James D. Risher

  • REPORT: Ponzi Pitchman Found Dead In Florida Of Apparent Suicide

    Daniel Joseph Sebastian, accused last year by the SEC of being a pitchman for the James D. Risher Ponzi scheme, has been found dead in Florida of an apparent suicide, The Ledger.com is reporting.

    Risher, a 61-year-old recidivist felon last living in Sanibel, Fla., pleaded guilty to Ponzi-related offenses last year and was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in federal prison.

    Sebastian, 49, pushed the scheme on senior citizens, church members, educators and golfers, the SEC charged last year.

    He was found dead in a van last week, TheLedger reported, citing information from the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

    The scheme gathered about $22 million, with Sebastian conducting business as “Safe Harbor,” the SEC charged last year.

  • BULLETIN: FLORIDA — AGAIN (UPDATE): James Risher Ponzi Scheme Used Pitchman Who Targeted Teachers, Retirees, Church Members, Golfers, SEC Says; Risher Had 5 Prior Criminal Convictions; Pitchman Daniel Joseph Sebastian Now Charged Civilly

    “[Y]ou invest in this fund and all of a sudden you start making more money than you’ve ever made in your life with your investors. And then all of a sudden you start making enough money where you don’t have to go to work . . . [a]t Safe Harbor, you could retire today, like right now. And I’m telling you, you get rid of the struggle.” — SEC,  quoting accused Ponzi pitchman Daniel Joseph Sebastian, Aug. 29, 2011

    BULLETIN: A Ponzi schemer arrested on criminal charges in June had the help of a pitchman who targeted senior citizens, church members, educators and golfers, the SEC said. The agency identified the pitchman as Daniel Joseph Sebastian of Celebration, Fla.

    Sebastian conducted business as “Safe Harbor,” and helped James D. Risher pull off a $22 million Ponzi scheme that affected more than 100 investors, the SEC said.

    Risher, 61, of Sanibel, Fla., was arrested on criminal charges by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in June. He, too, now has been charged civilly by the SEC, which noted he had been charged criminally five times since 1992 in various schemes and had spent 11 of the past 21 years in jail.

    “Risher, who masqueraded as a highly successful equity trader, teamed up with Sebastian to tout sophisticated trading strategies they claimed would generate substantial profits for investors,” said Eric Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “Instead, Risher and Sebastian used investors’ life savings and retirement nest eggs to line their own pockets.”

    The scheme also operated under the names of Safe Harbor Private Equity Fund, Managed Capital Fund and Preservation of Principal Fund, the SEC said.

    Risher had been arrested at least four times in Georgia, and at least once in Florida prior to the 2007 launch of the Safe Harbor scheme, the SEC said.

    Sebastian turned to old customers of his insurance business and recruited them into the Ponzi scheme, the SEC said.

    “From 2007 through July 2010, Sebastian solicited his former insurance customers, educators, retirees, and members of several churches in Florida,” the agency charged. “During the same time period, he also solicited investors in California, other states, and Canada. Sebastian persuaded his former customers to roll over the funds in their insurance and annuity products into the Fund. He told his customers the Fund would provide a higher rate of return than they could receive from the products he had previously sold them. At least one investor liquidated an annuity she had purchased from Sebastian and invested the proceeds in the Fund.”

    No registration statement was filed for any elements of the Safe Harbor scheme, the agency said.

    “Throughout the fraud, Sebastian also hosted numerous annual golf tournaments and other promotional events for investors, which Risher sometimes attended,” the agency charged. “At an investor event held on March 12 through 14, 2010 at an Orlando resort, Sebastian told investors in a speech, ‘[Y]ou invest in this fund and all of a sudden you start making more money than you’ve ever made in your life with your investors. And then all of a sudden you start making enough money where you don’t have to go to work . . . [a]t Safe Harbor, you could retire today, like right now. And I’m telling you, you get rid of the struggle.’”

    Read the SEC complaint.

     

  • FLORIDA — AGAIN: Postal Inspectors Say Recidivist Felon With 24 Bank Accounts And Undisclosed Criminal History Bilked Investors In $20 Million Scam; James Risher Arrested Before He Could Take Flight To Bermuda

    A recidivist securities felon tied to at least 24 bank accounts had an airline ticket for Bermuda last week but was arrested in Florida  before he could get offshore after scamming investors in a long-running fraud scheme that had gathered $20 million, according to law-enforcement officials.

    Charged in a criminal complaint by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was James D. Risher, who is associated with firms identified as Jade Asset Group LLC, Managed Capital LLC and Safe Harbor Investments. Risher is accused of mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering and conspiracy.

    Risher, 61, of Sanibel, Fla., was released from federal prison on Aug. 14. 2004, according to records. His imprisonment stemmed from 1997 convictions for mail fraud, securities fraud and money-laundering for which he was sentenced to 92 months, with three years’ supervised probation after his release.

    He also has state-level convictions in Georgia from a securities swindle in the early 1990s, according to records.

    The new charges against Risher suggest he embarked on a new swindle in early 2007, perhaps while still on probation for the swindle that led to his 1997 convictions. The FBI, the IRS, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation are assisting postal inspectors in the new probe, which is ongoing.

    One of the keys to Risher’s arrest was a notification that law enforcement received from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that Risher had a plane ticket to fly from North Carolina to Bermuda last week, according to court documents.

    Risher, according to the investigating postal inspector, had been placed on an ICE watch list during the probe and was being monitored for “scheduled travel outside of the country.”

    The investigating postal inspector advised a federal magistrate judge that Risher was a flight risk and may have a bank account in Bermuda, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean about 640 miles from North Carolina. ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

    Risher had reason to believe  investigators were closing in, according to the postal inspector’s affidavit.

    Fleeced investors were demanding their money, according to the affidavit. Meanwhile, at least two Florida law firms were investigating claims against Risher on behalf of about 150 investors, according to other records.