The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued (it says "charged" but it's a civil suit: criminal charges have been laid by other authorities) Alan Burak, founder of Never Alone Capital LLC, with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that raised approximately USD4 million, most of which Burak misappropriated for personal expenses.

The SEC that, between 2018 and 2023, Burak engaged in a fraudulent scheme to recruit investors in his so-called investment fund, Never Alone Capital LLC, by falsely representing himself as a wealthy hedge fund owner, telling investors that Never Alone was an investment fund, and claiming that investor money would be invested in “Wall Street” pursuant to a complex investment strategy, in some cases with a guaranteed return.

Burak allegedly raised approximately USD4 million from at least 17 investors, several of whom he met through a company that provides financial education programs in Spanish to the Latino community. However, the SEC says, Burak did not invest the money as he said he would. In fact, it says, Burak misappropriated the bulk of investors' deposits, used to pay credit card charges for, among other things, luxury skin care and payments to an adult-only subscription service, amongst other things.

Burak also allegedly sent investors false account statements that generally showed consistently positive returns, when in fact investors were consistently losing money. Burak eventually stopped responding to investors and, in an audio recording from July 2022, he stated, among other things, that he was fake, he did not have a real business and he was stealing money from people.

One thing remains to be ascertained: was his business registered with the SEC and did it have the necessary approvals?