A Hudson Valley man will spend years behind bars after being busted for operating a multi-million dollar investment club that was actually a Ponzi scheme targeting a Haitian community, federal authorities announced.
Rockland County resident Ruless Pierre, age 52, of Nanuet, has been sentenced to 84 months in prison in connection to a Ponzi-like securities fraud scheme that targeted his own community in the region.
Specifically, Pierre was convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, and structuring offenses by a jury in May 2021.
US Attorney Damian Williams said that between 2016 and 2019, Pierre coerced investors by promising unrealistically high rates of return of at least 20 percent every two months.
In reality, Pierre suffered heavy losses trading securities and concealed them by using new investor funds to pay older investors and issuing false account statements showing investment gains.
Pierre allegedly financed the fraud by using money that he embezzled from a former employer to make interest payments to investors.
During the course of the investment scheme, Pierre fraudulently obtained more than $2 million from approximately 100 investors, which was deposited into a personal bank account he controlled, Williams said.
Despite his trading losses, Pierre repeatedly and falsely represented to investors, Williams said, including in investment statements containing fictitious balances, that the trading was profitable and that their…
