A Queens, N.Y., advisor who pleaded guilty to a $6 million Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Surage Roshan Perera, 51, who was arrested in March 2023 and pleaded guilty to the securities fraud charges in October, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown. He was also ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution.

Between February 2022 and March 2023, Perera, the founder and executive director of Janues Capital in Bellerose, Queens, induced 15 investors, some of whom were his close friends, to invest in what they believed were “safe, well-performing investments," prosecutors said.

In one case, prosecutors said Perera convinced one investor to give him more than $4.2 million by falsely claiming “that he had relationships with large institutions and could purchase stock in companies that traded on the NASDAQ and NYSE at discounted prices.” The client was also led to believe that “her investment was low-risk, and he would use her investment capital to purchase shares in those public-traded companies,” prosecutors said.

In a parallel civil case, the SEC said Perera also claimed to use a trading strategy that prevented trading losses.

“He also claimed to exercise a trading strategy, which he called “options straddles” that would not only prevent any trading losses but also, for some of the supposed investments, guarantee returns on the investment of at least 9% and up to as much as 50%,” according to the SEC's March 2023 complaint.

Prosecutors said he stole the money and used it to, among other things, pay redemptions to prior investors, pay personal expenses and fund his day trading. He covered up the fraud by sending bogus confirmation notices and account statements to investors, prosecutors said. In all, they said, Perera caused investors to lose about $6.3 million.

“Perera’s sentence is just punishment for causing more than $6 million in losses to the victims who are now saddled with debts, some who lost their life savings and others who have been forced to delay retirement all because of the lies he peddled to them about their investments,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest and penalties.

Perera, who entered the industry in 2003,  was barred by Finra in July for refusing to appear for testimony in connection with the allegations, according to BrokerCheck. He has worked briefly for 11 firms, five of which have been expelled by Finra. They include Continental Broker-Dealer Corp., (in 2004), LH Ross & Company Inc. ( in 2005), Prestige Financial Center (in 2011), Global Arena Capital Corp. (in 2016) and Caldwell International Securities (in 2017).  His most recent employer was Aegis Capital Corp., from 2018 to 2022. His record also includes three pending disclosures and a $100,000 settlement related to the Ponzi scheme, and a 2009 customer dispute settled for $12,000.