Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

Church Hedge Fund Fraud Mastermind Gets Jail

by Paula Schaap ,Senior Reporter , August 2, 2010
http://www.hedgefund.net/publicnews/default.aspx?story=11597

A Queens, N.Y. church member who took more than $10 million from investors, mostly fellow parishioners and then lied to them when he lost their money, received a prison sentence of five years Friday.

Isaac Ovid, 29, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in March.

The five-year prison term was the maximum Ovid could have received, according to his attorney, Brian King.

Prosecutors charged that Ovid, who was a youth minister at the Local Christian Assembly Church in Forest Hills, Queens, lost more than $10 million, mostly on behalf of church members, in his hedge fund firm Jadis Capital.

The picture painted by Ovid’s attorneys in a letter to the court, was of a young man who fancied himself a hedge fund manager, but didn’t have the experience or ability to turn investor money into returns.

Within two weeks of launching the fund in May 2005, Ovid, who served as the fund’s trader, lost more than $2 million, according to court documents.

Ovid, along with Jadis principals Joseph Jonathan Coleman, Aaron Riddle, Robert Riddle and Timothy Smith also used investor money to furnish Jadis Capital offices and to buy things like luxury cars, in order to give investors the impression they were successful.

The other four Jadis executives were also members of the same Queens church. Coleman is the son of the church’s pastor, who has since retired. The four men have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing

http://www.hedgefund.net/publicnews/default.aspx?story=11597