Man’s Hotel Room Resale Scheme Was $15 Million Ponzi, SEC Says

A San Diego man and two entities he controls raised more than $15 million from investors as part of a hotel room Ponzi scheme, the SEC says in federal court in California.

Denny Bhakta claimed the investments would go toward purchasing hotel room reservation blocks from major chains and reselling them at a profit to corporate clients, but the “purported business was a sham,” the Securities and Exchange Commission says in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Bhakta allegedly sent Fusion Hotel Management LLC and Fusion Hospitality Corp. investors fake contracts and bank statements. He used ...