Jason Sugarman with his associates have been charged by SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for stealing client funds meant for being invested in Native American Tribal Bonds. Jason acted as a financer to plan this elaborate scheme in Los Angeles and scammed $43 million from Clients’ funds.
Jason Planned this entire fraud years back in 2013 when he along with his associates acquired control over two RIA firms. This was done to get access into buying native American tribal bonds using assets of clients. These two RIAs: Atlantic asset management and Hughes capital management worked for managing money for pension funds of many clients.
According to the SEC officials, Jason Sugarman with his associates tried controlling the disposition of the sale process for these bonds. Instead of spending these funds in annuities in order to profit tribal corporation, Jason Sugarman kept the money for himself. Jason Galanis is the partner of Jason Sugarman who helped him in his plan along with other associates.
All the money and funds that were supposed to be invested for the welfare of the tribal corporation was kept by these guys for their benefit. Jason Sugarman is found to keep around $9 million in cash. Because of the scam, Native American tribal corporation got indebted of $60 million and investors of pension funds lost $43 million in worthless securities.
SEC claimed that the entire problem sparked because of Jason and his associates’ cruel intention of keeping the money meant for the investment into tribal corporation and repaying bondholders. The aftermath has left both the RIAs and the Native American tribal corporation under huge debt.