Indian-American gets 10-year jail for $12.5m fraud

An Indian-American investment adviser has been sentenced to 10 years in prison following his conviction on 20 counts of fraud with a scheme that bilked 15 investors of $12.5 million.

Amit Mathur (38) of Massachusetts, was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims by the federal District Court in Worcester.

Holding himself out as a fantastically successful investment adviser operating a firm in Worcester known as Entrust Capital Management, Inc, Mathur received approximately $16 million from investors.

According to evidence presented at trial, Mathur told investors - in person and in marketing literature - that Entrust was operating a hedge fund that consistently achieved positive rates of return and did better than the general stock market indices.

In this way, Mathur lulled his investors into a false sense of security to persuade them to invest money and to leave their money with Entrust for the long term, the FBI said.

In fact, during its entire existence, according to the evidence introduced at trial, the Entrust fund suffered consistent losses. Moreover, in several instances, Mathur never even invested the money investors gave him.

Instead, he misappropriated more than $5 million of investors' money for his own personal use, including luxury items such as several cars, gambling, New England Patriots football season tickets, jewellery and clothing.