Post by Logan on Apr 9, 2016 3:47:37 GMT -6
$12M Ponzi scheme tied to NYPD corruption probe, officials say
A financially troubled Manhattan restaurateur who sources said had links to the current corruption probe into the NYPD was arrested in Georgia on federal charges he ran a $12 million Ponzi scheme through his sister’s liquor business, officials said.
Hamlet Peralta, who ran the trendy Hudson River Café in West Harlem, was taken into custody near Macon and was taken to court for a brief hearing Friday before he was sent back to Manhattan to face a federal criminal complaint, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Georgia.
An 11-page criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Friday said Peralta, 36, told investors he planned to use their money to engage in a wholesale liquor business but in fact purchased no more than $700,000 in wholesale liquor and used the remainder to pay off earlier investors and cover his personal expenses.
Peralta got his sister’s permission to use the bank accounts of her company, W 125th Street Liquors, to receive wire transfers representing loans from investors, according to the complaint. Peralta’s sister wasn’t charged with any wrongdoing and cooperated with investigators, the court document said.
Read more: www.newsday.com/news/new-york/12m-ponzi-scheme-tied-to-nypd-corruption-probe-1.11670275
A financially troubled Manhattan restaurateur who sources said had links to the current corruption probe into the NYPD was arrested in Georgia on federal charges he ran a $12 million Ponzi scheme through his sister’s liquor business, officials said.
Hamlet Peralta, who ran the trendy Hudson River Café in West Harlem, was taken into custody near Macon and was taken to court for a brief hearing Friday before he was sent back to Manhattan to face a federal criminal complaint, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Georgia.
An 11-page criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan on Friday said Peralta, 36, told investors he planned to use their money to engage in a wholesale liquor business but in fact purchased no more than $700,000 in wholesale liquor and used the remainder to pay off earlier investors and cover his personal expenses.
Peralta got his sister’s permission to use the bank accounts of her company, W 125th Street Liquors, to receive wire transfers representing loans from investors, according to the complaint. Peralta’s sister wasn’t charged with any wrongdoing and cooperated with investigators, the court document said.
Read more: www.newsday.com/news/new-york/12m-ponzi-scheme-tied-to-nypd-corruption-probe-1.11670275