Socius Capital Group is run by Terren S. Peizer and Michael S. Wachs of CEOcast. As revealed by Barron’s, Wachs is a "convicted financial felon" who is banned for life from the securities and banking industries. Wachs and two other "big time financial felons" run Socius Capital Group LLC, a "fake fund" that seeks to steal business from legitimate firms.
As officially disclosed by FINRA, Wachs "misappropriated $20,800,000 in proceeds by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises for the sale of certain of his member firm’s assets and then diverted the proceeds to himself and others." Socius partner
Terren S. Peizer is infamous for his role as "left hand man" to convicted felon Michael Milken in the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond scandal. Peizer avoided doing hard time by turning "states evidence" and testifying against his mentor.
The third member of the Socius team is convicted felon Richard Josephberg, recently paroled from prison after 21 convictions for fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion over 29 years. In between visits to his parole officer, Josephberg promotes Socius CG and Optimus Capital Partners to unsuspecting CEO’s, using aliases like Rick Berg and Rich Joseph. He is also banned for life from the securities industry. It is no wonder that Wachs, Peizer and Josephberg’s names appear nowhere on Socius’s website.
Socius has been repeatedly sued by issuers for taking their stock and then failing to fund as promised. The three felons appear to be growing increasingly desperate, as word spreads that Socius does not have anywhere near the capital they claim, that the source of their money is a criminal enterprise, and that any company doing business with them risks asset forfeiture and SEC investigation.
