The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Atlanta investment adviser Joseph A. Meyer Jr. and his firm Statim Holdings for defrauding a private fund and its investors.
The SEC complaint says that from August 2009 till June 2018, Mr. Meyer, and his firm offered and sold four classes of limited partnership interests in a private fund named Arjun. The complaint alleges that Mr. Meyer has promised his investors a feature called “No Loss Protection” in one class. In this feature, he said that all his investors were protected from financial losses and he promised his investors in the other two classes that they would receive guaranteed fixed returns from their investments.
According to the complaint, Mr. Meyer withdrew all the fund’s profits, which he used for paying his living expenses. The SEC said that it is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.
In a case filed by SEC against Mr. Meyer and Statim a month ago, the SEC also charged Mr. Meyer for modifying financial statements to mislead customers into thinking that he was not losing money. According to a report by Bloomberg, SEC said that Mr. Meyer falsely pretended numbers and then reported these false numbers to investors to defraud them.
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A 2016 Bloomberg story on the firm said that Mr. Meyer declared yearly profits of 13%, 24% and 91% in the previous years. He stated that these profits were a result of Arjun’s investment in a portfolio consisting largely of Treasury bonds. The story said that Mr. Meyer also stated that investors needed to keep their investment in the firm for decades and that if they withdrew their funds before Mr. Meyer would keep the half-principal amount.