Florida Fund Manager Smerling Indicted for $95 Million Fraud (3)

The head of a Florida private equity fund was indicted on charges he falsified documents and impersonated officers of a university endowment fund to secure $95 million in loans from a California bank.

The indictment’s allegations match those of a civil lawsuit filed by Silicon Valley Bank, of Menlo Park.

Prosecutors allege that Elliott Smerling, 52, engineered the fraud to pay “a massive debt” to another bank that isn’t named in the indictment. He created a fake audit letter and “subscription agreements” that were supposedly signed by investors in the fund, including the chief investment officer of an ...