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Pennsylvania RIA sentenced to 63 months for fraud

63-months

SEC previously charged George Heckler with fleecing $20 million from investors in a decade-long fraud.

George Heckler, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission in March charged with operating a decade-long $20 million investment adviser fraud, was sentenced in a parallel criminal case to 63 months in prison.

The criminal charges against Heckler stem from the same misconduct alleged in the SEC’s complaint, which charged that Heckler formed two private hedge funds, Cassatt Short Term Trading Fund and CV Special Opportunity Fund, to conceal massive losses incurred by another fund he controlled.

From 2009 through 2019, according to the complaint, Heckler, whose firm was based in suburban Philadelphia, raised millions of dollars while falsely telling investors that their funds were used in very short-term equity trading that consistently generated positive returns. Instead, the complaint alleges that a substantial amount of the money was not invested at all or had been used to make Ponzi-like payments to prior investors.

The SEC’s litigation against Heckler is ongoing.

[More: Internet scams are top threat to investors, NASAA says]

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