Federal agents arrested a Montecito man on Feb. 7 for defrauding investors in two multi-million dollar investment schemes.
Efstratios “Elias” Argyropoulos, 71, was arrested at his office in Santa Barbara, according to a statement by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Argyropoulos pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court the day of his arrest and was released on a $300,000 bond. He is ordered to stand trial on March 20. His arrest came after a grand jury indicted him for “running two fraudulent investment schemes and violating a court order prohibiting him from selling securities,” the DOJ said.
A 21-count indictment, unsealed after his arrest, said Argyropoulos operated two Santa Barbara investment services firms—Prima Capital and Prima Ventures—and engaged in two fraudulent schemes by soliciting investments in companies such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as investments in a fictitious estate settlement.
One scheme involved security shares with the two social media companies. In this instance, court documents said Argyropoulos used investor funds for day-trading stocks and personal expenses like “his mortgage, car payments, and casino debts,” instead of purchasing Facebook or Twitter stocks.
According to the indictment, Argyropoulos wrangled nearly $5 million from investors between October 2010 and October 2015 using the fraudulent model.
The second scheme revolved around an investment into the “Laurence Miles Giant Estate Settlement” trust, and Argyropoulos falsely telling investors the beneficiary was “a very ill woman who needed medical treatments and was the heir to a large estate which was worth more than $1 billion,” the DOJ said. According to the indictment, investors lost more than $760,000 in the scam.
The final eight counts of the indictment charge Argyropoulos with criminal contempt and allege his solicitation of investments in the Laurence Miles Trust violated the terms of an injunction that he “consented to in a suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was based on the fraudulent Facebook and Twitter scheme,” the DOJ said. The injunction prohibited Argyropoulos from selling fraudulent investments and acting as an unlicensed broker.
If convicted of the 13 fraud charges in the indictment, Argyropoulos would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count. There is no statutory maximum sentence for the eight contempt charges.
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Scott Paetty of the Major Frauds Section.
The Sun was unable to reach the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or representatives for Argyropoulos by press time.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.