CHICAGO
A U.S. District Judge sentenced Neal Goyal, 34, of Chicago to six years in prison for setting up a trading shop to fool investors into believing that his trading strategy generated market-beating returns, according to officials.
Goyal was the sole managing member and founder of Blue Horizon Asset Management LLC and Caldera Advisors LLC.
Judge Matthew F. Kennelly also ordered Goyal to pay more than $9.2 million in restitution, officials said.
Goyal plead guilty in February to one count of wire fraud. He was ordered to surrender to begin serving his sentence on Sept. 17, officials said.
“Goyal was running a Ponzi scheme and he stole much of his investors’ money to prop up his extravagant lifestyle,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Yeadon argued in a government sentencing memorandum. “There is no justification for the crimes that Goyal committed other than his own desire to place his own self-interests in front of the interests of his investors.”
From 2006 to 2014, Goyal perpetrated the scheme. He concealed his scheme by using existing investor money to repay investors, and by creating and distributing false account statements. Many of the duped investors were Goyal’s friends and family members.