LAS CRUCES – A wealth management firm in Deming is embroiled in allegations of fraudulent securities choices by financial investment supervisor Martin A. Ruiz of New York.
Ruiz was arrested in New York on Aug. 12 and accused of defrauding about a dozen of his customers of extra than $10 million because 2011 by means of the Carter Bain Wealth Management agency in Deming and the RAM expense fund.
Invoice Bryford, the expense advisor at the Carter Bain workplace in Las Cruces, claimed his very own practice and his clients’ funds were safe, not topic to any legal action and not concerned in the Ruiz case.
“We are in the process of getting in contact with all of our customers. Fortuitously, the only kinds that were impacted have been his customers — none of mine,” Bryford claimed, adding: “He couldn’t get into my clients’ accounts, he could not go any funds close to, so we are good.”
Court docket filings by the Securities and Trade Fee claim that Carter Bain Wealth Management is registered in New Mexico and Texas, and controls around $61.6 million in property, above which Ruiz would have experienced discretionary authority.
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Tries to achieve the Deming office environment Friday have been unsuccessful.
Prosecutors allege Ruiz misappropriated retirement money by transferring them to other entities underneath Ruiz’s command and finally converting them for personalized use, which include property purchases in New York and Santa Fe, and credit rating card and university student debts.
Ruiz has been billed with a one depend of financial investment adviser fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
The Securities and Exchange Fee filed a federal criticism and obtained a momentary restraining purchase and asset freeze towards Ruiz, Carter Bain’s Deming office and the RAM fund on Aug. 6, below seal until finally Aug. 12.
The company claims Ruiz swindled at the very least 56 investors, which include elderly clients, by telling them the RAM fund would devote their income in commercial financial loans and actual estate.
“Ruiz hid misappropriation by earning Ponzi-like payments to some buyers and providing buyers with false valuations about their RAM investments,” the SEC complaint alleges.
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It is looking for everlasting injunctions and recovery of the funds with interest and civil penalties from Ruiz, his Carter Bain franchise, the RAM fund and other entities under Ruiz’s control.
The complaint lists the Rothschild Magnus Fund, ISG Funds and a New Mexico LLC structured by Ruiz, Mister Farms, as reduction defendants, searching for to recover “illicit proceeds” from the alleged fraud.
Algernon D’Ammassa can be achieved at 575-541-5451, [email protected] or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.