Staten Island Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Defrauding Investors Of Over $2 Million
Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that EDWARD J. SERVIDER, a/k/a “Nick Halden,” pled guilty to defrauding approximately 100 investors of over $2.4 million through his firm EJS Capital Management, LLC. SERVIDER pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.
Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said: “Edward Servider lured investors into his scheme by falsely telling them he had achieved high annual rates of return through his Forex trading. In fact, he never made a single trade or achieved any returns for any of his nearly 100 investor-clients. Instead, he used his investors’ money to pay for personal luxuries like hotels, cars, and an engagement ring. I want to thank the FBI for their great work in putting a stop to this fraud.”
According to allegations contained in the Complaint and the Indictment filed against SERVIDER and statements made in related court filings and proceedings:
In March 2013, SERVIDER set up a retail foreign currency exchange (“Forex”) trading firm, called EJS Capital Management, LLC (“EJS”), in Brooklyn. SERVIDER and his business partner (“CC-1”) ran EJS from March 2013 through July 2014. EJS employed salespeople (“cold callers”) who made unsolicited telephone calls to prospective investors. SERVIDER and the EJS cold callers told prospective investors that their funds would be used to trade in Forex transactions, and provided them with a “performance report” that falsely claimed that between 2010 and 2013, EJS had achieved gross annual returns for its investors of approximately 18 percent, 22 percent, 49 percent, and 77 percent (the “EJS Performance Report”). In truth, EJS had never conducted any trading or achieved any returns for its investors. To sustain the fraud, SERVIDER directed EJS employees to send account statements to the EJS investors, falsely showing positive returns on their investments.
In fact, instead of using the investor funds to execute Forex trading, the majority of the moneys was misappropriated and used to pay SERVIDER and CC-1’s personal expenses and purported business expenses for EJS. For example, SERVIDER used investor funds to purchase an engagement ring, to lease a BMW vehicle for his girlfriend, and to pay for hotel rooms, rental cars, and parking tickets.
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SERVIDER, 29, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison and a maximum fine of the greatest of $250,000, twice the gross gain from the offense, or twice the gross loss from the offense. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge.
SERVIDER’s sentencing is scheduled for July 27, 2017, at 4:00 p.m.
Mr. Kim praised the work of the FBI, and thanked the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for its assistance.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine I. Magdo is in charge of the prosecution.
