During the months of February and March 2021, Williams managed to persuade a woman from Mississippi to invest a substantial amount of $1,005,000 into Guardian Opportunity Management.
A man from Florida has been handed a prison sentence of one year and one day for his involvement in a Ponzi scheme that spanned several years and involved millions of dollars. Court documents reveal that Michael Wayne Williams, aged 48 and residing in Miami, was the mastermind behind Highguard Capital, as well as its affiliated entities, Guardian Opportunity Fund and Guardian Opportunity Management.
Williams successfully convinced his victims to invest a staggering $3.6 million in Guardian Opportunity Management, only to misuse their funds for undisclosed purposes. Shockingly, he even used the money to settle fraud accusations and repay investors from discontinued funds he previously managed.
During the months of February and March 2021, Williams managed to persuade a woman from Mississippi to invest a substantial amount of $1,005,000 into Guardian Opportunity Management. However, Williams conveniently neglected to disclose a crucial piece of information to her.
He failed to mention that Guardian Opportunity Management's main investment vehicle, known as Guardian Opportunity Fund, had suffered a significant loss of 90% in its assets under management. What's more, Williams had ulterior motives for obtaining her money. He planned to utilize her funds to repay other investors in Guardian Opportunity Management who were on the verge of taking legal action against him.
A few years back, SEC made a complaint that from February 2016 to July 2017, Williams and Highguard Capital sold over $1.8 million in securities to investors in Guardian Opportunity Management. Williams described it as the investment manager of Guardian Opportunity Fund, a private fund he was launching.
Allegedly, Williams falsely assured investors that their money would be used to kickstart and expand the Guardian Opportunity Fund. However, he redirected a significant amount of their invested funds to reimburse investors in three previous funds he was shutting down.
The complaint went on to further allege that from March 2016 to at least October 2022, Williams and Guardian Opportunity Management collected over $16 million from investors through deceptive performance returns. Additionally, in February 2021, Williams and Highguard Capital fraudulently sold more than $1 million in securities interests in Guardian Opportunity Management to a woman from Mississippi, falsely claiming that the funds would be used to expand the Guardian Opportunity Fund. Instead, Williams redirected her money to repay previous investors in Guardian Opportunity Management.
In a major development, Williams admitted his guilt in October 2023 for committing wire fraud. The announcement was made by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, who leads the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, and Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office. The FBI Washington Field Office played a crucial role in investigating this case.
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