NEW YORK , Ny. — A New Jersey trucking company owner has been arrested charged with defrauding at least 20 different victims out of an approximate total of $5 million dollars in what federal authorities are say was a Ponzi scheme.
According to charges filed by U.S Attorney Southern District of New York, Arsen Lusher,49, of Millstone, New Jersey, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison.
“For four years, Arsen Lusher allegedly defrauded numerous victims of more than $5 million by cycling their investments to conceal the business’s inability to produce its promised returns, and altered official tax documents to reflect inflated balances in furtherance of this ploy,” said FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy. “The alleged empty assurances allowed the defendant to wrongfully haul in funding from investors and selfishly benefit from their losses. The FBI will continue to disrupt and hit the brakes on any investment scheme rooted in deceit.”…