Chicago Investment Adviser and Socialite Charged In Ponzi Scheme
From the Desk of Jim Eccleston at Eccleston Law Offices:
Neal Goyal, a Chicago-based investment advisor, was charged by the SEC with defrauding at least 35 investors out of more than $11.4 million in a Ponzi scheme.
Goyal owns Blue Horizon Asset Management LLC and Caldera Advisors LLC. He raised more than 7.3 million on behalf of the Blue Horizon Funds between January 2007 and May 2014, and raised at least $3.2 million from investors for Caldera Fund until February.
According to the SEC, Goyal misrepresented that those funds significantly outperformed the market. And he also claimed to employ a “long-short” trading strategy, meaning the funds would purchase certain equity securities while selling short other equity securities. However, Goyal never invested the vast majority of the money he raised from investors, and the limited trading that Goyal did perform was unsuccessful and resulted in significant losses. Additionally, Goyal sent investors fictitious account statements grossly overstating his performance. In 2007, when investors sought to cash out of the fund, Goyal made some payments to investors based on inflated amounts represented in account statements.
Goyal used the funds to support his lavish lifestyle and pay business expenses, including a staff trip to the Caribbean, a $1.4 million home and funding for his wife Marti’s clothing boutiques.
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