SEC Obtains Asset Freeze Against Offshore Fund and Its Operators

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has filed an emergency action charging an offshore fund and two individuals with engaging in a fraudulent scheme, and obtained an asset freeze to safeguard remaining investor funds at risk of immediate dissipation. The SEC’s complaint alleges that from at least 2018 to the present, Ofer Abarbanel of California and Victor Chilelli of Delaware and New York have engaged in a scheme to defraud investors in an offshore mutual fund they controlled, the Income Collecting 1-3 Months T-Bills Mutual Fund. According to the complaint, Abarbanel represented to investors that the fund would invest primarily in U.S. Treasury securities and also enter into certain types of reverse repurchase agreements with U.S. Treasury securities serving as collateral. As alleged, however, the fund invested only minimally in U.S.