By Forum Staff
On Tuesday, in federal court in Central Islip, Surage Roshan Perera, the founder and executive director of Janues Capital, Inc. in Bellerose, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment for securities fraud in connection with running a Ponzi scheme in which Perera used investor money to pay redemptions to prior investors and his personal expenses, and fund his highly speculative day trading, according federal prosecutors.
Perera, 51, pleaded guilty to the charge in October 2023. As part of his sentence, Perera was ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution.
Courtesy of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
As alleged in the indictment and set forth in court filings, between February 2022 and March 2023, Perera abused his position of trust as an investment advisor to convince unsuspecting investors to part with their hard-earned money for what they believed were safe, well-performing investments. For example, Perara falsely told one victim (“Jane Doe”) that he had relationships with large institutions and could purchase stock in companies that traded on the NASDAQ and NYSE at discounted prices. He also told Jane Doe that her investment was low-risk and he would use her investment capital to purchase shares in those public-traded companies. As a result, Jane Doe gave Perera more than $4.2 million. In reality, Perera was operating a Ponzi scheme. Instead of investing as promised, Perera misappropriated those funds by, among other things, paying redemptions to prior investors, paying personal expenses and funding his day trading. To conceal his fraudulent scheme, Perera sent fraudulent confirmation notices and account statements to investors.
In the end, Perera caused 15 victims, some of whom were his close friends, to lose approximately $6.3 million.
“Perera’s sentence is just punishment for causing more than $6 million in losses to the victims who are now saddled with debts, some who lost their life savings and others who have been forced to delay retirement all because of the lies he peddled to them about their investments,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
