Adviser Convicted of Fraud Loses Acquittal Bid in Ponzi Case

An investment adviser convicted of securities fraud following Ponzi scheme allegations is stuck with the jury’s verdict because there’s “palpably more than sufficient” evidence to back it up, a federal judge in New York said.

Ruless Pierre asked the court to revisit an earlier motion for acquittal on one securities fraud count because, he said, his “investment promissory notes” weren’t subject to federal securities laws. But a reasonable jury could conclude the notes were “investment contracts, a type of document explicitly recognized as a security in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” the U.S. District Court for the Southern District ...