Last Thursday, November 14, 36-year-old Colombian citizen Efrain Betancourt, Jr. was arrested and subsequently charged in a Florida federal court for allegedly operating a $66 million Ponzi scheme under the guise of a payday loan company, Sky Group USA, LLC (Sky Group). According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Betancourt, Jr. was charged with conspiracy to conduct mail and wire fraud as well as wire fraud itself as early as September 12. Four days after his detention, the indictment was made public.
According to the indictment, Betancourt and his collaborators sold promissory notes to investors and made fraudulent promises of returns ranging from 24 to 120 percent each year. Payday loans were intended to be issued using investor funds. The money received from these loans was then intended to be used to pay back the investors. The indictment claims that, in contrast to these assurances, funds from new promissory note investors were utilized to repay previous ones, which is a feature of a Ponzi scheme. Betancourt is also charged with embezzling more than $7.5 million for personal indulgences, including lavish wedding expenses in France, pricey jewelry, a Miami property, and many family getaways.
More than 600 investors, many of whom were from Venezuela, were the victims of this complex scam. Betancourt, Jr. may spend up to 140 years behind bars if found guilty on all charges of the indictment. A federal district judge will decide on the appropriate sentence, taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines as well as other statutory considerations. According to the same press release, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI’s Miami Field Office, Russell C. Weigel, III, Commissioner of the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, made the announcement.
Furthermore, Betancourt, Jr. was the subject of a prior parallel proceeding by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to the same claims of investment fraud. July 2022 saw the resolution of that case. The FBI, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and the FBI’s South Florida Fraud Task Force collaborated on the present investigation, with support from the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. The principal prosecutor in this case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Cruz. An indictment is an accusation, and it is important to remember that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law. Referencing case number 24-cr-20399, the District Court for the Southern District of Florida’s website has pertinent court records and other details.
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