SEC Charges Former New York Investment Advisor and Daughter With Conducting a Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former Rockland County, New York-based investment adviser and his daughter with conducting a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded local community members as well as members of their family and close friends. The SEC alleges that Hector May, an investment adviser representative and the president and chief compliance officer of the now-defunct Executive Compensation Planners Inc. (ECP), and his daughter Vania Bell, who served as ECP’s controller and senior compliance administrator, misappropriated more than $7.9 million in a Ponzi scheme involving bonds. According to the SEC’s complaint, with Bell’s help, May lied to investors by promising to invest their money in bonds when they actually used the money to pay for personal and business expenses, as well as extravagant items, such as jewelry, furs, vacations, and a limousine driver.