Before You Invest Your Money

A United States grand jury has indicted the New York lawyer Marc Dreier on charges of securities fraud over an alleged investment scheme said to have left a number of funds with losses of over $400 million.The indictment claims that Mr Dreier, the founder of the 250-strong Dreier LLP, conspired over four years in an elaborate scheme to sell fraudulent debt securities purporting to be from a Manhattan real estate firm to a number of hedge funds.As part of the scheme, the lawyer is accused of impersonating or having associates impersonate officers of the “issuers” of the fake notes, Reuters reports. Last week, a judge ordered that the Harvard Law graduate find four responsible people to guarantee his $20 million bail bond, but Mr Dreier was only able to find two – his mother and 19-year-ancient son. He has therefore remained in jail, the news service said. Speaking at that hearing, magistrate judge Douglas Eaton said Mr Dreier had acted in a “reckless, clever and improvising” manner just prior to his arrest, suggesting that he poses a serious flight risk. If convicted of the charges against him, Mr Dreier faces up to 20 years in prison and financial penalties running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.