Craig Allen, 53, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding dozens of investors out of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Allen, the executive officer of C.M. Allen Capital Management, Inc., ran the “Cheetah Fund,” where he manipulated investors with fraudulent claims of high returns.
Allen convinced potential investors to place their money in the Cheetah Fund by promoting tear sheets that boasted annual returns as high as 73%. However, after securing investments, Allen provided fabricated monthly account statements showing gains that did not exist, and issued fake tax documents falsely reporting these non-existent profits.
In truth, the Cheetah Fund had been incurring continuous losses, yet Allen continued to mislead investors with fake reports. He also misappropriated investor funds, using checks made out to himself to support his personal lifestyle.
As a result of his fraudulent actions, investors in the Cheetah Fund lost a total of over $9 million. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. ordered Allen to pay $9.2 million in restitution to the victims of his scheme.
“Allen abused the investors’ trust by failing to invest their money as promised and diverting these funds to maintain his lifestyle,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr. “For some victims, these stolen funds comprised their life savings.”