SEC Accuses Realty Firm of Running $600 Million Ponzi Scheme (1)

New Jersey-based National Realty Investment Advisors LLC and four of its former executives ran a Ponzi-like scheme that raised approximately $600 million from about 2,000 investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

NRIA and its executives promised investors that their money would be put into a fund to buy and develop real estate properties, which could generate returns of up to 20%, the SEC said in its complaint lodged in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

But, the NRIA couldn’t generate enough cash from operations to cover the distributions made to ...