CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Gustavo Guzman, 59, previously of Fullerton, Calif., made his initial appearance in federal court in Charlotte today following his extradition from Australia, to face wire fraud, securities fraud and transactional money laundering charges related to an alleged $2 million investment fraud scheme, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
Michael C. Scherck, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall join U.S. Attorney King in making the announcement.
According to allegations contained in the indictment, from April 2010 to August 2015, Guzman, through various entities he controlled, including G2 Asset Management and East Egg Private Equity, executed a scheme to defraud approximately 10 investors of at least $2 million, by falsely representing that he would use the investors’ money to trade in options and other similar investments. Instead of investing the funds as promised, Guzman allegedly stole a substantial portion of the investors’ money and used it to fund his personal lifestyle, including to make large credit card payments and cash withdrawals, and to pay for personal expenditures. As alleged in the indictment, Guzman suffered massive trading losses with the money that he did invest and used some of the victim’s money to make Ponzi-style payments to investors. To conceal the trading losses…
