A former chief financial officer of a cash advance company is facing criminal and civil charges for his alleged involvement in a scheme that raised more than $322 million from more than 3,600 investors nationwide.
Alan G. Heide, 61, of Lake Worth, Fla., was charged with fraud by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida and named in a civil complaint filed by the SEC in U.S. District Court in Florida for playing a role in an investment fraud carried out by 1 Global Capital LLC and its officers between 2014 and 2018, according to an SEC press release.
The complaint is the third action taken by the SEC in the matter. Complaints were lodged against the South Florida firm 1 Global and its CEO, Carl Ruderman, last year, and last month a complaint was filed against Henry J. “Trae” Wieniewitz III for his allegedly unlawful sales of 1 Global securities.
Heide, without admitting to or denying the charges, has agreed to settle the civil charges, as did Ruderman and Wieniewitz after they were sued, the SEC said.
The SEC alleged that 1 Global, using a national network of sales agents that targeted people in at least 42 states, promised investors profits from its short-term cash advances to businesses, but then used investor money for other purposes, including operating expenses and funding Ruderman’s "lavish lifestyle," including a luxury family vacation to Greece, monthly payments for his Mercedes-Benz automobile and payments for a housekeeper and personal chef.
Heide, a CPA, played a "significant role" in the fraud by signing investors’ monthly account statements, which he knew overstated the value of their accounts, and falsely claiming that 1 Global's statements were verified by an independent auditor, the SEC said in its complaint.
Heide did all this while knowing "1 Global’s financial condition was depleted due to Ruderman and the company’s misuse of investor funds," the complaint said.
“Heide’s misrepresentations gave false comfort to investors, allowing them to be duped to invest in 1 Global’s securities,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “We allege that as 1 Global’s CFO, Heide played a significant role in 1 Global’s fraud by overstating the value of investors’ accounts and their rates of return and falsely representing the role of an auditor.”
As part of the settlement, Heide agreed to be subject to an injunction, with the penalty to be determined by U.S. District Court at a later date, the SEC said.