Former Infinity Q exec settles expenses associated to alleged fraud By Reuters

By John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The previous chief threat officer of defunct funding adviser Infinity Q Capital Administration LLC conform to settle expenses of misconduct associated to a fraudulent scheme to inflate the worth of property the agency suggested by greater than $1 billion, securities regulators mentioned on Friday.

Scott Lindell did not train cheap care and to undertake an applicable investigation regarding a number of crimson flags that indicated the worth of Infinity Q funds’ positions had been inappropriate, the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee mentioned in expenses filed in Manhattan federal court docket.

Lindell agreed to settle the fees, with willpower of disgorgement, prejudgment curiosity, and civil cash penalties to be determined by the court docket at a later date, the regulator mentioned.

Lindell couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

Infinity Q was pressured final 12 months to liquidate its mutual funds after the SEC discovered that the agency’s founder and former chief funding officer, James Velissaris, manipulated a third-party pricing mannequin used to worth fund investments.

The SEC mentioned Lindell negligently misrepresented to traders, representatives of the mutual fund’s board, and others that the pricing service was unbiased from Infinity Q when, in actual fact, Velissaris exercised management over it.

Lindell additionally helped Velissaris submit deceptive paperwork to the SEC in response to the regulator’s preliminary inquiries over the valuations and, on one event, helped mislead the mutual fund’s auditor “with a minimum of reckless disregard of the reality,” the SEC mentioned.

Lindell, who was additionally Infinity Q’s head of operations, chief compliance officer and a former portfolio supervisor and member of the agency’s valuation committee, additionally willfully made misstatements on some Infinity Q SEC filings, the regulator mentioned.

Velissaris was charged in February over the matter by the SEC, the Commodities Futures Merchants Fee and the Southern District of New York (SDNY).