Executives of Coral Springs company ran Ponzi scheme, SEC says. They owe $1.4M
Two former executives of a Coral Springs trucking company were ordered to pay back over a million dollars after the company was found to be operating a $112 million Ponzi scheme, according to federal officials.
Ricardi Celicourt and Brisly Guillaume, former investor relations executives of Royal Bengal Logistics Inc., are facing legal blowback from an under-the-table operation that sold unregistered securities to mostly Haitian-American investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
Meanwhile, RBL’s founder, Sanjay Singh, was prosecuted in a criminal case and sentenced to 23 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering in 2024. He’s appealing.
The SEC filed notices Feb. 26 instituting administrative proceedings against Celicourt and Guillaume to enforce an agreement that bars them from trading penny stocks, selling securities and associating with any broker, dealer or similar type of advisor.
The two men were also ordered to pay back profits they received in the scheme, plus hefty civil penalties. Ultimately, Celicourt of Coconut Creek owes $586,492, and Guillaume of Boynton Beach owes $895,667.
Neither were licensed brokers or dealers, and the company’s securities were never registered with the SEC, filings show.
Both men represented themselves in the civil proceedings. The Coral Springs News reached out to each of them regarding the case but didn’t receive a response Feb. 27.
Origin of the scheme
Singh founded the trucking and logistics company in Coral Springs in June 2018 and began raising funds from investors in 2019 to grow the size of the truck and trailer fleet, despite the fact the company wasn’t authorized to sell securities, according to filings.
The team targeted mostly Haitians, offering high yield on investments and “guaranteed” returns by telling investors the company generated up to $1 million a month with their fleet of over 200 trucks, officials said.
They raised nearly $112 million from over 1,500 investors, the SEC found.
But in reality, the company was in the hole, operating at an $18 million loss since 2019, authorities said. RBL began running a Ponzi scheme to stay afloat, paying back old investors with about $70 million of new investor funds, according to filings.
The company offered several types of opportunities: short- and long-term investments, trailer sponsorship and a truck purchasing program, with minimum investments starting at $25,000, documents show. Some of the programs purported to offer over 200% return on investment and interest rates over 30%, according to the SEC.
Celicourt and Guillaume spearheaded these fraudulent programs and regularly met with prospective investors, prosecutors allege. Celicourt was the vice president of business development and investor relations, while Guillaume was the director of business development and investor relations.
The investing programs weren’t secret, either. The two men appeared in solicitation videos on YouTube and RBL’s website, handed out brochures and pitched investors at conferences, according to the SEC.
Singh is also accused of diverting $19 million of investors’ funds to his brokerage accounts to engage in “highly speculative equities training on margin,” ultimately taking a loss of $1 million, according to a complaint.
Legal fallout
During Singh’s 2024 trial in Broward County, prosecutors said he used investors’ money to buy a Mercedes and renovate his home in Coral Springs, in addition to making risky trades in the stock market, the Miami Herald reported.
The fraud scheme went on for about four years until the SEC filed an emergency injunction against RBL and Singh in 2023, accusing the company of misrepresenting its profitability and how it was using investors’ money.
Investigators said the executives’ wives were caught up in wrongoing as well. In the injunction, prosecutors accused Celicourt’s wife of using $2.1 million of investor funds to purchase real estate in Pompano Beach, while Singh’s wife reportedly diverted about $7.5 million of investors’ money to a separate bank account.
Celicourt and Guillaume didn’t admit fault but agreed to abide by conditions of the court that they would pay back gains they received from the scheme and not participate in certain securities-related transactions in the future.