Nevada-based investment adviser Luis Petrossi was convicted by a Pennsylvania federal jury of defrauding investors out of $1.1 million. This follows a 2017 conviction in New York federal court in a $131 million investment scheme.
Petrossi, founder and president of The Wealth Research Institute, was found guilty on three counts of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, and wire fraud. He has been accused of using a part of investor’s money for personal expenses.
Petrossi Used Investor Funds for Lavish Lifestyle
Between January 2015 and January 2017, Petrossi received money from more than 25 investors around the country to be used towards investments in technology startups like Lyft, Spotify, and Pinterest.
According to filings, Petrossi told investors that the $1.8 million they put in would go into two funds, Chadwicke Partners LLC and Chadwicke Ventures LLC. But only $665,400 was put into the privately held startups and $1.1 million was redirected into Petrossi’s personal accounts and used towards payments for his BMW, renovations to his home, and personal legal fees.
To cover up the fraud, Petrossi sent investors false data spreadsheets purporting to reflect the value of the securities held by the funds.
Additional Charges Brought After Petrossi Violated Terms of Parallel Case
In 2016 Petrossi was arrested in his home state of Nevada following an indictment by a federal grand jury in New York for his role in a $131 million-dollar securities fraud scheme involving ForceField Energy Inc.
Petrossi went to trial for his role in the scheme and was convicted in May 2017. Under the terms of his pretrial release, he was barred from employment that involved directly handling investors.
The Pennsylvania charges where prompted when Petrossi was found to be soliciting people to invest in startups, violating the conditions his pretrial release in the ForceField Energy securities fraud case.
Petrossi Faces Maximum Sentence
In both cases, brought in Pennsylvania and New York courts, respectively, Petrossi faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
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