According to reports, George Elia of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, who faces allegations of running a Ponzi scheme, has been arrested for wire fraud.

The charges apparently relate to the various companies Elia started in 2000 out of Florida, including International Consultants and Investment Group Limited Corp., International Consultants and Enterprises, Inc., Vision Equities, Inc., Vision Equities Fund II, LLC, and Vision Equitieis Fund III, LLC.

The indictment alleges that Elia met with an investor at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale in 2010 and presented the investor with allegedly fraudulent Fidelity account statements, which the FBI later discovered to reflect different values from the actual Fidelity account statements.  The documents Elia presented showed an account with a balance of $8.2 million while the actual amount was $111,000.  Based on Elia’s assurances that he would recover his money in a year, the investor agreed to wire funds to Elia.

If convicted, Elia faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.  An arrest warrant has also been issued for Elia’s wife, Darlene Ella.

Elia has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme, defrauding at least 30 investors of more than $9.5 million.  Following the filing of claims against him, Elia abruptly moved out of his Florida home in January of 2012.  A private investigator found Elia relocated to Larnaca, a city on Cyprus’ southern coast, where he continued to try to get more investors and was residing as late as March 23, 2012.

Elia was then arrested in Las Vegas on March 27, 2012 and now faces extradition to Florida.

According to Elia’s FINRA Broker Report, he was employed as a registered representative with Banc of America Investment
Services from 06/2004 – 12/2005.  To the extent that an individual invested with George Elia while he was employed by
Banc of America, they may be able to recover their losses through FINRA arbitration.

Even if a financial advisor is conducting business without the knowledge of his employer, the firm may still
be liable for negligent supervision of their broker representative and may be responsible for investment losses in a FINRA arbitration claim.

If you have suffered losses due to your investment with George Elia and would like to speak to a securities attorney about your potential to recover those investment losses, please call The White Law Group’s Chicago office at 312-238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and
securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at https://whitesecuritieslaw.com.