Branford man charged with running Ponzi scheme

BRANFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- A Branford man has been charged with running a Ponzi scheme.

Feisal Sharif, 42, faces charges he operated a scheme to defraud multiple investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars via a Ponzi scheme.

Officials say Sharif ran an investment fraud scheme through First Financial, LLC, a firm he operated out of his Branford home.

It's alleged that he defrauded one victim after taking more than $400,000 in funds to invest. As part of the scheme, Sharif created and emailed bogus account statements to convince the victim that his $400,000 investment had appreciated to more than $2.2 million and that the funds were secure.

A second victim who invested at least $225,000 with Sharif received a bogus account statement stating an account balance of more than $1.8 million.

Authorities say Sharif admitted to one of these victims that he had been running a Ponzi scheme when he was unable to redeem all the funds from the victim. The victim then reported him to the FBI in July 2012.

Sharif has been charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

He was arrested on Thursday at his Branford home. He appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge in Bridgeport and was released on $150,000 bond co-signed by his family members.

"We allege that this defendant operated a Ponzi scheme, using hundreds of thousands of dollars from victim-investors to pay other investors," stated U.S. Attorney Fein. "I commend the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, CFTC and Connecticut's Department of Banking for their quick and expert work in shutting down this scheme. The investigation is ongoing, and I encourage any potential victims or anyone with information related to this scheme to contact law enforcement."

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call FBI Special Agent Mark Munster at (203) 777-6311.