A traveling yoga teacher must pay federal authorities nearly $5.6 million for her role in a purported Ponzi schemes out of Plantation that earned more than $30 million from speculators.
Zeina \”Zeeluv\” Smidi, who tours the country in a bus fueled by plant oil, had the multimillion-dollar judgment entered against her in Fort Lauderdale federal court. Smidi and her previous fiance, James Clements, once ran a bunch of companies under the names MRT or Maximum Return Transactions the U.S. SEC Commission alleged served as fronts for an investment fraud concerning foreign FOREX trading.
Smidi, 31, and Clements, 50, have been accused by SEC barristers of moving about $3 million of investors \’ cash to their private bank accounts and using another $3 million for travel, luxury items and other expenses. In one three-week span, cash from an MRT account was employed to pay for $8,000 in NFL tickets, meals at ski destinations in Vermont and Colorado, and hotel reservations in Vegas, bank records show.
Smidi must pay $2.5 million in profits she made, $2.5 million in civil penalties and another $600,000 in interest, U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas ordered May 21 in the SEC civil case against her. In a fresh judgment, Clements was ordered to pay $768,000 to the SEC.
The solicitor for Clements and Smidi related that they have done everything they can to help clients recover their money, and that claims they used the funds to support an excessive lifestyle are not accurate.
\”The [SEC] case is resolved,\” related Inger Garcia, their solicitor. \”I\’d love to comment, but I can\’t on certain issues.\”
Clements gave evidence at a June 2008 court hearing that he had \”nothing to be ashamed of\” and had made no guarantees to clients.
The U.S. Attorney\’s Office sent letters in March 2010 to Clements and Smidi informing them that they were targets of a criminal investigation. The status of that inquiry was confusing Fri..
That frustrates MRT clients such as Nyra Horowitz, 75, a Boynton Beach widow who lost $140,000 to the company.
\”That\’s what gets me they still walk the streets,\” Horowitz said. \”In the meantime, I have not seen one nickel.\”
Clements and Smidi ran MRT from 2005 till the summer of 2007, first promising stockholders major returns from foreign foreign exchange trading and then pronouncing the company was making an investment in high-yield overseas products, according to the SEC legal action. Less than $3 million was employed for currency trading, while old investors were paid with new investors \’ money, federal authorities asserted.
Apart from the judgments in the SEC case, Clements and Smidi are on the hook for a $50 million judgment entered against them in a class-action legal action filed by MRT backers.
Jeffrey Sonn, the solicitor who brought the class-action case, expounded that all by indications Clements headed MRT while Smidi filled a role equivalent to a chief operations officer. He said that there have been some tiny recoveries of investors \’ cash, but the MRT bank accounts had been emptied and there weren't any visible assets by the point the class-action suit was brought.
This piece is all about investment fraud and securities arbitration lawyer . The author is Phil Amori.
Yoga instructor ordered to pay $5.6 million in alleged Plantation Ponzi scheme
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