SEC goes after Chalala Academy and Lendvesting Academy
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken Chalala Academy LLC, Lendvesting Academy Corp., and their owner Alexandra Robert to Court for an offering fraud.
The relevant complaint, seen by FX News Group, was filed in the Florida Southern District Court on July 26, 2022.
The complaint alleges that, from at least May 2020 through August 2021, the defendants fraudulently raised approximately $900,000 from at least 80 investors, by an unregistered offering of “investment programs” falsely promising guaranteed returns of up to 48%. Defendants falsely told investors that they would make interest generating loans to small businesses that would otherwise not qualify for traditional financing, thereby providing investors with high fixed returns.
In order to carry out the scheme, the defendants allegedly made material misrepresentations to investors, publicly claiming, among other things, to have raised in excess of $4 million from over 1,000 investors. However, the defendants grossly misrepresented to investors the investor pool size, defendants’ investment experience, the amount of capital raised and profits distributed, investment risks, and the source of the “guaranteed” returns.
Instead of executing an investment strategy designed to generate the promised returns, the defendants misappropriated approximately $200,000 of investor funds and used other investor funds to make Ponzi-like distributions.
The SEC alleges that Chalala, Lendvesting, and Robert violated Sections 5(a) and (c) the Securities Act of 1933, [15 U.S.C. §§ 77e(a) and (c)], Section 17(a) of the Securities Act [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)], and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [15 U.S.C. § 78j(b)] and Rule 10b-5 thereunder [17 C.F.R. §§ 240.10b-5].
Unless enjoined, the defendants are reasonably likely to continue to violate the federal securities laws, the SEC says.