A former New York Life insurance broker was sentenced to 27 months in prison for duping investors out of $1 million in a scheme in which he used his association with the company to solicit money from investors, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
Ivan Ramos, 39, of Hillside, N.J. was sentenced on Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Claire C. Cecchi via videoconference. He had pleaded guilty in January to one count of securities fraud, the release said.
According to the court document, Ramos, who sold life insurance at New York Life, mislead his victims into believing that two entities he controlled, Invexperts LLC and Wealth Seeds Capital LLC, were associated with New York Life. The victims, whom he had become acquainted with after they purchased life insurance through him, through New York Life marketing events, or through mutual acquaintances, believed that their money would be associated with investments through New York Life.
The court said multiple victims referenced New York Life on the memo line of their investment checks. For example, one victim who attended a New York Life seminar subsequently met with Ramos at his office in Edison, N.J., adn ultimately invested in Invexperts, believing it was associated with New York Life, prosecutors said.
Ramos, the court document said, misrepresented to investors that their investments in Invexperts and Wealth Seeds were no-risk with fixed annual returns. But instead of investing the money as he promised the investors, Ramos used the funds for, among other things, paying for expenses for himself and others to develop a restaurant called “Frisky Bull BBQ” in Elizabeth, N.J., and to repay other investors, the court said.
In addition to the prison term, Ramos was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.