U.S. Authorities Charge Investment Adviser With Million Dollar Fraud

An investment adviser of Indian origin has been charged by U.S. federal authorities for masterminding a fraudulent million dollar investment scheme over several years, PTI reported.

Amrit JS Chahal, 30, from Fairfax, Virginia, been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), even as the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced charges against him.

The CFTC on April 12 charged him for allegedly committing commodity futures fraud, commodity pool fraud, and illegally commingling Kane Capital’s funds with his personal fund and is seeking full restitution to defrauded pool participants, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent registration and trading bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of federal commodities laws.

The Department of Justice on April 11 charged him in a nine-count criminal indictment, including four counts of commodities fraud.

The complaint filed by the SEC alleges that since February 2015, Chahal used his company, Kane Capital Investment Group, to fraudulently solicit approximately $1.4 million from about 50 individuals, including his friends and family members.

As per the complaint, Chahal is the president, chief executive officer, and sole employee of Kane Capital. He has no securities licenses and he has not been associated with a registered broker-dealer or investment adviser other than Kane Capital.

The complaint says that he lured investors by falsely claiming to be an experienced and successful trader who could generate above-market returns for clients through a low-risk trading strategy.

According to the SEC, Chahal has no substantial experience working in the financial or securities industry or trading securities on behalf of clients and that initially invested client funds were put in a variety of investments, but suffered significant trading losses.

The complaint further alleges that instead of disclosing the losses, Chahal gave misleading information to his clients about their investment returns and continued raising funds. He then used the money for his personal benefit, such as payment for his luxury car, rent, travel, dining, and other living expenses, and to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors.