A self-admitted ‘bad guy’ ran a $21 million investment fraud in Miami, feds say
A federal indictment says Miami’s Larry Ramos Mendoza, managing member of The W Trading Group, told an investor in the company, that “he was a bad guy and had made some mistakes and bad investments.”
Prosecutors agree about the bad guy part. That’s why the indictment in Miami federal court charges Ramos with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and five counts of wire fraud in running a $21.9 million Ponzi scheme from 2013 through 2020.
The indictment says Ramos opened the wallets of 235 investors by claiming The W Trading Group employed an algorithm that made commodities trades returning up to 4% per trade, but would stop trades if they lost 2% over a period. Investor money would sit in a TD Ameritrade brokerage account and be used exclusively for trades. And investors could check their accounts on The W Trading Group mobile app.
“However, while [The W Trading Group] did own at least one TD Ameritrade brokerage account, no trades ever occurred,” the indictment says. “Moreover, the account statements that victims believed they were viewing through the TWT mobile application were entirely fabricated.”
The indictment says of the money raised, $17,455,220 went to pay previous investors in classic Ponzi scheme fashion; Ramos took home $2,852,245; and $1,666,506 went to a partner unnamed in the indictment, The W Trading Group’s state registration or its annual reports.
Asking victims to help in the Ponzi scheme?
Among the victims listed in the indictment was “C.V.O.,” a woman who the indictment says invested $500,000 and got fooled by the faux app numbers into wire transferring another $100,000 into a W Trading Group account.
That was on Aug. 14, 2018. In 23 days, the balance in that W Trading Group account was $19,000, the indictment claims, and no money had been invested or traded.
“Sometime in 2019, C.V.O. learned from another investor that her investment was no longer good and asked Ramos for her money back,” the indictment says. “Ramos told her he was bad guy and had made some mistakes and bad investments.
“C.V.O. recorded phone calls of Ramos asking her to get him new investors so that Ramos could pay her back.”
An investor of $327,000, identified as “G.C.,” also allegedly “recorded phone calls of Ramos asking G.C. to secure more investors so he could pay back G.C. Ramos also returned approximately $19,000 to G.C. in 2020, in örder to try to secure G.C.’s ‘help with the media.’
“Ramos also told G.C. that he knew of a trust account made up of fifty properties being sold for pennies on the dollar, and that if G.C. could get him $500,000 or $600,000, Ramos could buy the properties and sell them for $2 million, in order to pay back G.C. (andC.V.O.)“
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