Decades in Prison Possible for Century City Man Atop $3 Million Ponzi Scheme

A Century City man faces the possibility of decades in federal prison when he is sentenced in October for running a $3 million Ponzi scheme primarily targeting members of the Persian-Jewish community.

Shervin Neman, whose given name is Shervin Davatgarzadeh, was found guilty at trial last week of two counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud, according to federal court records.

The 32-year-old Neman claimed to be a successful investor who made significant profits, but actually ran a Ponzi scheme from the summer of 2010 through last June by soliciting funds from investors with false claims that their money would be used to purchase foreclosed real estate and stocks.

Instead of using investor funds to make the promised investments, Neman spent most of his clients' money on personal expenditures and to repay other victims.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Neman and his company, Century City-based Neman Financial Inc., two years ago in Los Angeles federal court.

SEC documents show that Neman was operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that was primarily targeting members of the Persian-Jewish community in Los Angeles. As a result, a federal judge issued orders prohibiting Neman from committing securities fraud.

The month after the SEC sued Neman, he solicited $2 million from another victim with false promises that he could obtain pre-IPO shares in Facebook.

Neman used the funds obtained from the new victim to pay, among other things, most of his earlier victims and the law firm representing him in the SEC action.

Neman then had victims who had been "paid back" write emails saying that he did not owe them money and then tried to use those emails as part of his defense in the SEC case, according to prosecutors.

In June 2012, Neman sent to the later victim a $2,235,800 check supposed to be the return on the Facebook investment, but it bounced.

The three fraud counts each carry a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Neman was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20.

--City News Service