(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Long Island, New York man and his wholly-owned company with defrauding investors by falsely claiming to manage a successful hedge fund.

According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least 2015, Rand Heckler, a former broker who was barred by FINRA in 2019, solicited over $700,000 in investments from an elderly investor and the investor’s son by claiming to manage a successful hedge fund through his company, Rand Heckler, Inc.  The complaint alleges that, in reality, Heckler and Rand Heckler, Inc. never managed a hedge fund and never invested the funds he received.  Instead, Heckler allegedly misappropriated most of these funds to pay for his personal expenses, including mortgage payments, car payments and a country club membership.  Further, Heckler allegedly sought to conceal his scheme by, among other things, sending allegedly phony account statements and trade confirmations to the investor and his son. According to the complaint, when the investor’s son sought to redeem part of his father’s investments, Heckler solicited a new $100,000 investment from a different investor and persuaded the new investor to transfer the money to a bank account that she believed belonged to an investment firm, but in fact belonged to the first investor.

The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has a dedicated investor education webpage for seniors on Investor.gov.  The webpage includes Investor Alerts and a guide for seniors to protect themselves against investment fraud.

In a parallel action, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office announced criminal charges against Heckler.