Recent UGA grad admits he ran $1 million Ponzi scheme at frat house
Syed Arbab, the 2019 University of Georgia graduate accused of running a Ponzi scheme out of his fraternity house by the Securities and Exchange Commission, pleaded guilty on Oct. 11 to securities fraud, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Georgia announced.
Arbab defrauded 117 investors for approximately $1 million, spending the money on himself. Among his expenses were clothing, shoes, retail purchases, fine dining, alcoholic beverages, adult entertainment and interstate travel, including spending thousands of dollars gambling during three trips to Las Vegas in 2018, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys office.
Unfortunately this case is a stark reminder to investors to be very careful where they entrust their hard earned money, and always be skeptical of offers that sound too good to be true, said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta in the release. The victims of this scheme, many of them students, will never recover their losses, but can rest assured that Arbabs greed will not go unpunished.
Arbab, who ran his scheme out of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house on West Broad Street, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine and three years supervised release. The court, overseen by United States District Judge C. Ashley Royal, also has the power to order restitution. Arbab will be sentenced in January in Athens.
Read more: https://www.redandblack.com/uganews/recent-uga-grad-admits-he-ran-million-ponzi-scheme-at/article_084c4cc4-ec6d-11e9-9067-d37b9caf8b6f.html