New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed criminal charges against an investment advisor for defrauding elderly clients.
On Wednesday, AG Underwood said Dean S. Mustaphalli, the owner and operator of Mustaphalli Capital Partners, is facing 99 counts of criminal charges.
The Attorney Genera’s office alleged that Mustaphalli operated a million dollar securities fraud scheme. Between June 2014 and March 2017 alone, he defrauded 22 clients and solicited nearly $5 million. Most of his victims were elderly and at or near retirement.
In June 2017, the AG’s office filed a separate civil lawsuit alleging that Mustaphalli solicited additional $7 million from previous investors between 2012 and 2014.
In total, Mustaphalli fraudulently solicited more than $12 million in investments from his former clients. He then lost over $11 million of investors’ money.
The AG’s office filed civil and criminal charges against Mustaphalli after conducting a years-long investigation. The investigators found that he targeted his elderly clients because he knew they had relatively conservative investment objectives.
