New York Haitian man charged in defrauding Haitian community of at least $1.65 million | Breaking news

Editor’s Note: This is a developing story.

In what seems to be an epidemic, another Haitian person has been charged by the authorities with defrauding people in the community.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that it filed charges against Marc Henry Menard and Laesha Jean-Louis in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for allegedly defrauding more than fifty individuals, many from the Haitian-American community, of at least $1.65 million.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately July 2021 through September 2023, Menard solicited investments by misrepresenting his past investment success, how he would use investor funds, and the returns investors would receive. 

The complaint alleges that Menard, 40, told a number of investors that their funds would be used to trade in stocks and options and that he could guarantee interest payments of 10 to 20 percent per month. Menard, however, was not as successful of an investor as he purported to be, losing nearly $700,000 trading securities, primarily using investors’ funds. 

When Menard could no longer make promised interest payments to investors or repay the principal on their investments, he resorted to additional falsehoods to conceal his scheme.

Menard is also accused of misappropriating a significant amount of investor money for his personal use. According to the complaint, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury vehicles, international travel, gifts, rent, and other personal expenses and made payments to prior investors in a Ponzi-like manner. 

Jean-Louis, 30, who was also engaged in a romantic relationship with Menard, received significant amounts of investor money.

Menard and Jean-Louis are charged with violating the antifraud provisions of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 193, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 206(1), 206(2), and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-8.

The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and a bar from Menard acting as an officer or director of any public company.

Protecting vulnerable immigrant communities

In an effort to protect immigrant communities who are often targeted in fraud schemes, the New York Regional Office launched FraudWise, a program to help educate communities in New York and New Jersey that are or could be targets of a community-based investment fraud known as affinity fraud.

At its core, affinity fraud exploits the trust and friendship that exists in groups of people with something in common. Fraudsters who carry out affinity fraud scams frequently are (or pretend to be) members of the group they are trying to defraud.

The FraudWise project will identify and educate these communities by going into neighborhoods to reach people where they live and give them the tools they need to protect themselves from future affinity fraud scams.

“Menard lied to lure members of the Haitian-American community into investing funds and then stole a substantial amount of the money for his own benefit,” said Tejal D. Shah, associate regional director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office.”The SEC will continue to pursue individuals who prey on trusting members of their own communities.”

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