Ex-Nassau Investment Broker Arrested In $1M Ponzi Scheme: DA

GLEN COVE, NY — A former investment broker from Glen Cove has been arrested after authorities said he swindled friends and neighbors out of more than $1 million in a Ponzi scheme and used the money for personal use, including a mortgage and country club membership.

Rand Heckler appeared in court Wednesday on three counts of 2nd-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud. All are felonies. Heckler was released on his own recognizance and was scheduled to appear in court Nov. 13. If convicted of the top count, he faces up to five to 15 years in prison.

"Rand Heckler allegedly duped friends, neighbors and complete strangers into investing their savings in a Ponzi scheme that fueled his extravagant lifestyle," Madeline Singas, the Nassau County district attorney, said in a news release. "The defendant allegedly used his clients' money – more than $1 million – to pay for his mortgage, country club membership and other expenses."

Beginning in 2015, Heckler suggested to his friend and friend's son that they invest in a hedge fund of stocks and securities that he managed. The offer was only for Heckler's closest 15-20 friends and associates.

Between late 2015 and early 2020, investors wrote Heckler two-dozen checks totaling about $755,000. During that time, Heckler gave them statements with the names of the stocks and the hedge fund account's current value, and showed them bogus trade confirmations as proof that the stock was bought, prosecutors said.

"To conceal and sustain this fraudulent scheme, Defendants periodically provided Investor A and his son with fake account statements that purported to show investments made by Heckler, Inc. in stocks and other securities," authorities wrote in a complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Motivated in part by these statements, Investor A and his son continued to invest in Defendants’ sham hedge fund, transferring at least $755,000 to Heckler, Inc. between 2015 and 2020."

In January 2020, the friend's son, who has power of attorney for his father, asked Heckler for $100,000 from his father’s account, part of which was for his children’s trust fund. The following month, after several weeks of delay, he received $100,000 via wire to his bank account and was told the money was from the sale of shares in the hedge fund, prosecutors said.

However, prosecutors later learned the money was actually directly wired from Heckler's neighbor, authorities said. She went to the bank with Heckler in February thinking she was wiring $100,000 in life insurance payment from her late husband into the hedge fund, prosecutors said. She believed she would receive monthly dividend payments from her investment and did not know there was a problem until investigators contacted her.

"In reality, the bank account belonged to Investor A, and the purpose of the transfer was so that Heckler could repay Investor A in a Ponzi-like fashion," the SEC said in its complaint.

Heckler also bilked two more victims in a similar matter, authorities said. He solicited additional victims by cold-calling people in other states and persuading them to invest, prosecutors said. Instead, he spent the money on himself, including credit card payments and daily expenses such as dry cleaning and phone bills.

In all, Heckler, 65, stands accused of stealing $1,004,159 from four people. Prosecutors also plan to charge his corporation Rand Heckler, Inc.

Heckler worked as a registered representative for various broker-dealers in New York and Florida from 1995 until April 2019. He was associated with a registered broker-dealer located in New York City from December 2013 until April 2019, when the brokerage firm closed. In June 2019, Heckler was barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from associating with any of the authority's member companies for failing to respond to the authority's request for documents and information about a customer complaint. He is also not currently registered with the SEC, authorities said.