Young investment schemer gets caught up on $150 million scheme

Posted by Alex Rowe on February 12, 2013

The Securities and Exchange Commission is pressing charges against 29-year-old Illinois resident Anshoo R. Sethi, who sold over $145 million in securities and collected $11 million in administrative fees for the ‘supposed’ construction of a Chicago Convention Center and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago.  Most of the 250 investors were from China, and believed they were investing in the building of the “World’s First Zero Carbon Emission Platinum LEED certified” hotel and conference center in Spring of 2012. It is alleged that Sethi and his companies forged U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services documents to create provisional Visa’s for the investors, who believed they were investing in their path to U.S. citizenship through the EB-5 program. The program enhances the chances of foreign investors getting their green card if they in invest $500,000-$1 million in a program which creates jobs for U.S. workers.  Although Sethi has spent almost all of the administrative fee’s he collected, the SEC may have caught Sethi in the nick of time and has put a lock on the remaining $145 million. $2.5 million had been directed straight into Sethi’s personal account in Hong Kong. To read more, visit: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2013/2013-20.htm

Tags: financial risk, Securities and Exchange Commission, EB-5 program, Anshoo Sethi, fraud, SEC, federal investigation, immigration services