Indian-American jailed for six years for Ponzi scheme

NEW YORK: A 34-year-old Indian-American investment manager has been sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding investors of millions of dollars through a Ponzi scheme to fund his "extravagant lifestyle", and has been ordered to pay over $9 million in penalty.

Neal Goyal fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from investors in a sophisticated Ponzi scheme to fund his extravagant lifestyle was sentenced to six years in federal prison.

He was the sole managing member and founder of an asset management firm and was also ordered to pay more than $9.2 million in restitution, by US District Judge Matthew Kennelly.

Goyal had pleaded guilty in February to one count of wire fraud and has been ordered to surrender to begin serving his sentence on September 17 this year.

"Goyal was running a Ponzi scheme and he stole much of his investors' money to prop up his extravagant lifestyle," Assistant US Attorney Kenneth Yeadon argued in a government sentencing memorandum.

"There is no justification for the crimes that Goyal committed other than his own desire to place his own self-interests in front of the interests of his investors."

From 2006 to 2014, Goyal perpetrated the scheme by setting up a fake trading shop in Chicago in order to fool his investors into believing that his trading strategy generated market-beating returns.

He concealed his scheme by using existing investor money to repay investors, and by creating and distributing false account statements.

Many of the duped investors were Goyal's friends and family members.