Neal Goyal of Blue Horizon Asset Management Charged with Allegedly Defrauding 41 Investors of $11.3 Million

A Chicago investment fund manager fraudulently obtained more than $11.3 million from 41 investors and misused the funds for his own benefit, as well as to repay certain investors in a Ponzi-type scheme, according to a criminal fraud case announced by federal law enforcement officials. The defendant, Neal Goyal, was the founder and sole managing member of Blue Horizon Asset Management LLC and Caldera Advisors LLC, both of which were unregistered investment advisers.

Goyal, 33, of Chicago, was charged with one count of wire fraud in a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court, where he will be ordered to appear for arraignment on a date yet to be determined.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil fraud lawsuit yesterday and obtained a court order freezing the assets of Goyal and his funds. The SEC suit alleges that Goyal stole his investors’ money to fund his own lavish lifestyle, to pay business expenses, and to support a variety of personal business ventures, including a bar and two children’s clothing boutiques that his wife operates in Chicago.

According to the criminal case, between June 2006 and May 2014, Goyal obtained more than $11.3 million from investors through offering and selling limited partnerships in three Blue Horizon funds and a Caldera Equity Fund by making false representations about the intended use of the funds, the investment returns generated, and the source of the investment returns and principal paid to investors. In fact, Goyal allegedly misappropriated the investors’ funds for his own benefit and concealed the fraud scheme by creating and distributing false account statements.

Beginning in early 2006, Goyal represented that funds invested in the Blue Horizon funds would be used for long and short trading in equities, options, and other securities. By June 2006, Goyal began sending false account statements to investors that inflated the financial results from trading purportedly being done by those funds, the charging document alleges. By the first half of 2008, Goyal allegedly knew that he intended to misuse the funds for himself and to make Ponzi-type payments to certain investors. By January 2009, Goyal had stopped trading for two Blue Horizon funds and had not traded at all for the third Blue Horizon fund. In February 2009, Goyal allegedly began engaging in a similar fraud scheme with investments in the Caldera Equity Fund.

Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine or an alternate fine totaling twice the loss or twice the gain, whichever is greater, and restitution is mandatory. If convicted, the court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

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Robert De Niro to Join Robert Pattinson on Movie About Murdered Burglary Crew That Stole from Tony Accardo #IdolsEye

Back in 2011 actor Robert De Niro and director Olivier Assayas sat side by side on the Cannes jury. Now they’re making a movie together. Assayas has just hired De Niro to join Robert Pattinson in the film Idol’s Eye. The movie is scheduled to shoot in October in Chicago and Toronto.

The press release announcing the film doesn’t have many details, but there is speculation (via The Film Stage) that this is a retitled launch of the Assayas project Hubris. That was described in 2013 as “an action-packed crime thriller set against the backdrop of organized crime in Chicago in the 1970s.” Which would be something I’d watch the director of Carlos do in a heartbeat.

Indeed, this new film is described as a sophisticated heist action/thriller. And with that Chicago location planned, these probably are one and the same. Or at least one jumps off from the other.

Here’s a rundown. Hubris was a script by Bobby Moresco that Todd Field was going to direct back in 2011. It was based on a 2007 Playboy article called Boosting the Big Tuna, written by reporter Hillel Levin. The story was based on the murders of a crew of guys who robbed the house of Chicago mafia boss Tony Accardo’s (AKA “Big Tuna”) in 1978. After the break-in, several guys suspected of the crime were murdered with, well, let’s say extreme prejudice. Some were tortured. There’s a lot more to the story than that; it’s a hell of a gangland saga, with violence and a big multi-layered investigation. (It’s also the same material that Michael Mann was toying with shooting as Big Tuna a few years ago.)

So where does the name Idol’s Eye come from? The Idol’s Eye is a big diamond — a big famous diamond, in fact. In the ’70s it was owned by a Chicago jeweler. It was never stolen, and was not part of the Big Tuna robbery. But there’s a connection. The owner of the diamond was Harry Levinson, a mob-connected guy. And in 1977 a thief named John Mendell targeted Levinson for his diamond, and planned a huge heist of the rock that was only partially successful. John Mendell is one of the guys who broke into Big Tuna’s place a year later.

So what story is Assayas telling? We’d assume that De Niro is going to play Accardo, and Pattinson will be Mendell. But the title suggests this could be more about the attempt to steal the Idol’s Eye than the Accardo robbery. Both are big, great stories, with potential for some excellent cinematic flavor.

Regaardless, I’ll watch it. Assayas had a good year at Cannes this year, too. While his current film, The Clouds of Sils Maria — a film about film — didn’t win the Palme d’Or, it earned a lot of appreciation while playing on the Croisette. We’re looking forward to seeing that, and having Idol’s Eye on the horizon is a bonus.

Variety adds that Rachel Weisz is now also in talks to join the cast, and confirms that this is a relaunch of the old Hubris project.

Thanks to Russ Fischer.

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Juan Alberto Ortiz-Lopez, High-Ranking Guatemalan Drug Trafficker, Extradited to Face Federal Drug Charges #OperationPanamaExpress

Juan Alberto Ortiz-Lopez, a/k/a “Chamale,” a/k/a “Juanito,” (43, San Marcos, Guatemala) has been extradited to the Middle District of Florida to face federal drug trafficking charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. The indictment also notifies Ortiz-Lopez that the United States intends to forfeit any and all properties, which are traceable to proceeds of the offenses. Ortiz-Lopez was indicted on February 1, 2011 and arrested on March 30, 2011, by Guatemalan authorities.

Count one of the indictment charges Ortiz-Lopez with conspiring with other persons, including persons who were on board a vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and who were first brought into the United States, at a point in the Middle District of Florida, to possess with the intent to distribute and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Count two charges Ortiz-Lopez with conspiring with other persons to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, knowing and intending that such substance would be unlawfully imported into the United States.

Ortiz-Lopez’s indictment was obtained following a long-term investigation by the Operation Panama Express Strike Force—a multi-agency task force targeting large-scale drug trafficking organizations involved in smuggling shipments of narcotics into the United States. Ortiz-Lopez was designated under the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program as a Consolidated Priority Organization Target (CPOT) and was considered by the DEA to be the highest-ranking drug trafficker currently operating in Guatemala. For over a decade, Ortiz-Lopez’s drug organization received multi-ton cocaine shipments in Guatemala, which would then be transported through Mexico to the United States, where the cocaine would be further distributed.

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Patricia M. Syling Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud

Patricia M. Syling (44, Lutz) pleaded guilty to wire fraud. She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. As part of her plea agreement, Syling also agreed to forfeit a residence in Lutz.

According to the plea agreement and other court documents, Syling gained employment in October 2007 with Citrus Health Care Inc. (CHC), a health maintenance organization located in Tampa. Her title was director of Compliance. To secure the position with CHC, Syling used a false name (Patricia Dunne) and other false personal information in her CHC employment application, including a false Social Security number, prior work history, and education history. Syling used the false information because at the time, she was under federal indictment in the District of Hawaii, charged with eight counts of mail fraud.

Shortly after securing employment at CHC, Syling opened a bank account at Regions Bank in the name of Health Solutions Group LLC (HSG), a company created and controlled by her. Thereafter, she created fraudulent documentation to support bogus invoices submitted by HSG and other like-sounding names to CHC, which Syling then approved for payment. For example, in July 2007, using her position at CHC and still posing as Patricia Dunne, Syling provided fraudulent information to a member of the CHC Board of Directors in order to cause that person to initiate an interstate wire transfer of $395,000 from CHC’s SunTrust bank account to the HSG bank account controlled by the Syling at Regions Bank. Syling then used a portion of the proceeds from the wire transfer to purchase a home in Lutz, Florida.

In March 2009, Syling pleaded guilty to the eight mail fraud charges in the District of Hawaii. On June 3, 2009, she was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison. She was released in June 2013. A superseding indictment was returned in the Middle District of Florida case in July 2013.

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Hamadi Hassan Pleads Guilty to Crack Cocaine Conspiracy

Hamadi Hassan, 26, of Portland, pled guilty in U.S. District Court to conspiring to distribute crack cocaine.

According to court records, between November 2010 and February 2012, the defendant was the leader of a drug trafficking conspiracy that acquired cocaine in Boston and distributed crack cocaine in the greater Portland area. The defendant took orders for crack cocaine from customers and co-conspirators; transported cocaine from Boston to Maine; and prepared, packaged, and delivered crack cocaine to his customers and co-conspirators.

Hassan faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 40 years in prison, a $5,000,000 fine, or both. He will be sentenced after completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

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