Chicago-based Stoltmann Law Offices represents investors nationwide on a contingency fee basis who’ve been victimized by Ponzi schemes. One of the most notorious Ponzi schemes in recent years involved Horizon Private Equity, which bilked some $110 million from 400 investors. The operators of the scheme have been sued by investors in a class action lawsuit, but some investors have viable individual claims to pursue against Oppenheimer through FINRA Arbitration. The fund was sold by brokers at Oppenheimer.
An investor class-action suit claims “Oppenheimer management, from 2008 through December 31, 2016, actively aided” John J. Woods (the lead seller for Horizon); his brother, defendant James Wallace Woods; and their cousin, defendant Michael J. Mooney, each a financial adviser at the firm, with funneling investor money into Horizon.” The Horizon scheme “continued to raise money from unsuspecting investors through Southport Capital, a registered investment advisory firm, for nearly five more years,” the suit alleges. The alleged Ponzi scheme, according to the suit, “made no significant profits from legitimate investments, and `returns’ to investors came instead from new investor money.”
On August 20 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an emergency action against Woods, Southport Capital and Horizon Private Equity, III, LLC for “alleged violations of federal securities fraud, with the intent of freezing the parties’ assets, appointing a receiver and gaining a full accounting of the finances involved.”