SEC Charges Former Real Estate Executive With Misappropriating $26 Million in Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former president of a Marin, California real estate development and management company with operating a fraudulent Ponzi scheme and misappropriating over $26 million from more than 1,300 investors – many of whom were elderly and retired. According to the SEC's complaint, from September 2015 through May 2020, Lewis I. Wallach and the now deceased founder of Professional Financial Investors, Inc. (PFI) raised approximately $330 million by falsely telling investors that their money would be used primarily to invest in multi-unit residential and commercial real estate managed by PFI. As alleged in the complaint, many of the defrauded investors were elderly, retired and relying on their investment income for daily living expenses.