Court orders Florida Ponzi duo to pay $1.8 million penalty

A U.S. court in South Florida has entered final judgments against Ponzi scheme operators Neil Burkholz and Frank Bianco, ordering each to pay a $920,825 civil penalty.

Burkholz, of Boca Raton, Fla., also was ordered to disgorge $429,580, which includes prejudgment interest. Bianco, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., was ordered to pay $443,997 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.

The Securities and Exchange Commission previously charged the two with conducting an alleged $6 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 55 investors. The scheme involved falsely representing that a proprietary options trading strategies was highly profitable. In reality, Burkholz and Bianco invested less than half of the investor funds, and those investments resulted in near-total losses. The two took the remaining funds for personal use.

In November 2019, the SEC filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Burkholz and Bianco and their two companies, Palm Management and Shore Management. This past February, the court ordered over $1.2 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest against those companies.