Frank E. Lleras and two Charlotte, N.C., companies that he controls have been charged with fraudulantly raising $2.9 million from investors by promising to invest in real estate, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina also announced Thursday that Lleras pled guilty to criminal charges of securities and wire fraud.
The fraud involved Lleras’s companies, Optimum Income Property LLC and Optimum Property Investments LLC. The fraud targeted investors from the Dominican Republic. Lleras solicited money from 25 investors over two years by falsely claiming he would use the funds to buy homes and condominiums in Charlotte.
He also told investors that he would renovate and resell or rent the properties for substantial profit and take a percentage of the net profit as a fee, the SEC complaint says. Lleras's claims to investors were false because he only used a small portion of investor funds to purchase properties and misappropriated large portions of the funds for his own benefit.