WexTrust Co-Founder Byers Is Jailed on Ponzi Scheme Charges

[katty]

more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeFaE8wyGAPo&refer=home

WexTrust Co-Founder Byers Is Jailed on Ponzi Scheme Charges
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By David Glovin

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Steven Byers, the co-founder of real-estate investment firm WexTrust Capital LLC, was jailed yesterday on charges that he conspired to cheat investors out of $9.2 million.

Byers and Joseph Shereshevsky, also a WexTrust co-founder, were arrested in August and accused of cheating investors out of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme. According to a November indictment, they used money raised from investors to fund the firm’s operations and repay earlier investors. Chicago-based WexTrust, a private-equity firm, specialized in real estate and investment banking, according to its Web site.

Byers, of Oakbrook, Illinois, had been subject to home confinement and electronic monitoring. At a hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan ordered Byers jailed. Court records don’t say why. Byers’ attorney, Margaret Shalley, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment today.

In a Ponzi scheme, money from new investors is used to pay old ones. WexTrust raised at least $255 million in private placements from more than 1,196 investors in the U.S. and abroad, and stole more than $100 million, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a civil lawsuit filed against the two men in August.

[Uben]

1. Prison for life...no parole

We have to get a hold on these cheaters. Take away everything they have and incarcerate them for life. All of them!