A Glen Cove man pleaded guilty to a grand larceny charge involving a $1 Ponzi scheme, officials said Friday.
Rand Heckler, a former investment broker, “duped friends and neighbors investing with him and used their money to pay his mortgage, country club membership and other expenses,” according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s office.
Heckler “roped friends, neighbors and even strangers he cold-called into a Ponzi scheme that drained them of more than $1 million dollars,” District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “The defendant used the stolen cash to finance a luxurious lifestyle that included a country club membership and other expenses. Investment brokers are trusted to make smart financial decisions for their clients, but this defendant’s conduct shows he was only in business for himself.”
He DA’s office said that in2015, Heckler encouraged his friend and friend’s to invest in a hedge fund of stocks and securities that he was managing. The offer was only to be for Heckler’s closest 15 to 20 friends and associates.
Between December 2015 and January 2020, the investors wrote Heckler 24 checks, totaling $755,159. During that time, Heckler showed them statements with the names of the stocks and the hedge fund account’s current value. He also showed them false trade confirmations as proof that the stocks had been purchased.
In January 2020, the friend’s son, who has power of attorney for his father, asked Heckler for $100,000 from his father’s account, part of which was for his children’s trust fund. In February 2020, after several weeks of delay, he received the $100,000 via a wire to his bank account and was told the money was from the sale of stock.
However, in May 2020 the DA’s office, after receiving the case from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, found that the money was wired directly from another victim in February. That victim, the defendant’s neighbor, went to the bank with the defendant in February 2020 believing she was wiring a $100,000 life insurance payment from her deceased husband into the hedge fund, when in fact, she was wiring the money directly to the first victim’s son.
Meanwhile, the defendant’s neighbor believed she would receive monthly dividend payments from her investment and did not know there was a problem until NCDA investigators contacted her.
During the investigation, at least two other victims were discovered to have been defrauded by the defendant in a similar manner.
The defendant solicited additional victims by cold-calling people in other states and getting them to agree to invest.
In total, he stole $1,004,159 from four victims.
Heckler is due back in court on July 20 and is expected to be sentenced to up to 2-1/2 to 7-1/2 years in prison, forfeit $48,000 that was seized from his bank account, and receive a civil judgment order for the restitution balance.
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