Persian Jews Targeted

The Los Angeles Times reports: “Persian-Jewish community targeted – The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused a Los Angeles man of operating an investment scheme that defrauded investors out of more than $7.5 million. The SEC alleged in a lawsuit that Shervin Neman, 30, targeted members of the Los Angeles Persian-Jewish community, promising to make huge profits by investing in foreclosed real estate and pre-IPO shares of well-known companies. Instead of making such investments, he used new investor contributions to pay returns to early investors and spent about $1.6 million on himself, including on his wedding and honeymoon and on expensive jewelry and tickets to sporting events. “Although Newman promised investors exorbitant returns resulting from his investing acumen and access to pre-IPO shares of well-known companies, what they actually received was simply other investors’ money in hallmark Ponzi scheme fashion,” the SEC said in a news release.”