Judgment sought in $5.7 million scheme
But no charges filed in Gane fraud case
A financial services business operated by Guy W. Gane Jr., accused of defrauding more than 90 investors of more than $5.7 million, “was a complete sham,” the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission said last week in a court filing.
SEC attorney David Stolting asked a federal judge to enter judgments against Gane and his Watermark Financial Services Group, based on Sweet Home Road in Amherst.
In classic Ponzi scheme fashion, Gane and his employees used money raised through the sale of unregistered promissory notes and debentures to pay off earlier investors, wrote Stolting, who brought emergency action against Gane and the companies in May 2008.
“There were no legitimate investments,” Stolting wrote, “no investing profits and indeed no revenue except for the fraudulent debentures and promissory notes.”
So why hasn’t Gane been charged criminally, like such Ponzi schemers as Bernard Madoff in New York City and Richard F. Piccoli in Amherst?
A federal grand jury has heard testimony against Gane, who took the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination to hundreds of questions during an SEC deposition.
But almost 14 months after the SEC took civil action, Gane has not been charged criminally.
“We are aware of the SEC case; law enforcement is aware of it,” said Gretchen L. Wylegala, the assistant U. S. attorney who prosecuted Piccoli and is assigned to the Gane case.
“Every investigation proceeds at its own pace,” Wylegala added. “Law enforcement is continuing its work.”
Stolting’s motion asks U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny for a summary judgment against Gane, his companies and three employees. Gane’s two children are named as relief defendants, as is a company owned by Konstantinos Samouilidis, a Greek investor.
Gane, 54, has vowed to repay his investors and has continued to raise money for another venture, a buying service for evangelical Christians.
In his last public comment, Gane told a reporter for The Buffalo News in February, “The only thing I can say, and I hope I can say this for a fact: I’m going to make sure nobody loses their money.”
William G. Bauer of Rochester, Gane’s attorney, did not return a phone call seeking comment on the SEC’s latest filing.
The SEC contends that Gane and Lorenzo Altadonna, his top salesman, convinced retirees to hand them their individual retirement accounts and other retirement funds for investments in New England property and local companies.
But no real estate investments were made, the SEC said, and little was invested in a group of local companies.
Instead, the SEC said, Gane used the money to repay earlier investors and diverted much of the money to himself and others.
James W. Grable Jr., Altadonna’s attorney, said his client was as much a victim of Gane as the investors, a claim the SEC rejects.
In affidavits filed by Gane’s attorney, Gane’s children, Guy W. III and Jenna, said they were employed by the company and worked for the money they received.
But two of Gane’s employees provided statements saying they never saw either at the office, and Stolting said the business has no work records or pay stubs for either offspring.
Last week, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in jail for his $65 billion fraud.
Piccoli, 82, who admitted stealing $25 million from his investors, is scheduled to be sentenced in October to what is expected to be a life term.
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