NEW YORK — Marc Henry Menard, a Florida man accused of defrauding Haitian buyers out of greater than $600,000, has been convicted and sentenced to 5 years’ probation, New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James introduced July 30.
Menard, previously of Mineola, New York, pleaded responsible in April in Nassau County Supreme Court docket to Grand Larceny within the Second Diploma, Scheme to Defraud within the First Diploma, and Securities Fraud. Along with probation, he was banned from the securities trade for 5 years. He additionally admitted owing buyers $385,271, and judgments had been entered of their favor.
“Marc Henry Menard lied to hard-working New Yorkers and stole a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} to deal with himself to lavish journeys and luxurious purchases,” James mentioned in an announcement. “Thanks to my companions in legislation enforcement for serving to to finish this fraud and produce Menard to justice.”
The case stems from a three-year scheme Menard ran via his firm, Marcotech LLC, starting in July 2020, through which he solicited Haitian buyers throughout Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Queens counties, in addition to Florida and Georgia, with guarantees of month-to-month returns between 12 and 20 p.c. Traders who recruited others had been promised even larger returns, in keeping with the legal professional normal’s workplace.
As an alternative of buying and selling on buyers’ behalf as promised, prosecutors mentioned Menard funneled the cash into his personal private buying and selling account, the place high-risk day buying and selling and choices buying and selling produced losses of greater than $670,000 between July 2021 and October 2022. He used extra investor funds to repay earlier buyers in a Ponzi-like style and to cowl private bills, together with greater than $100,000 in journeys to Turkey, Puerto Rico and Disney World, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz, a 2022 BMW, and purchases at Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
To maintain the scheme going, Menard allegedly confirmed buyers a fabricated ATM receipt reflecting an account stability of greater than $8 million and a pretend buying and selling display screen exhibiting a internet worth over $1 million. In actuality, the best stability his accounts ever reached throughout that interval was roughly $301,000, in keeping with the AG’s investigation.
Menard was beforehand ordered to pay $765,875 in a associated civil case introduced by the Securities and Change Fee in 2024, after he failed to answer the SEC’s grievance accusing him and a romantic accomplice, Laesha Jean-Louis, of defrauding greater than 50 buyers out of no less than $1.65 million. Jean-Louis was later dismissed as a co-defendant in that case.
The prosecution is the most recent in a string of monetary fraud instances lately which have focused Haitian communities via affinity fraud, through which perpetrators exploit belief inside their very own communities to lure buyers. Menard’s identify had circulated amongst neighborhood members for years, together with through the fallout from the EminiFX cryptocurrency fraud case, and a few instructed The Haitian Occasions they’d additionally invested with MarcoTech and NovaTechFX, one other Ponzi scheme that focused Haitian buyers.
Legal professional Normal James urged New Yorkers to confirm any funding skilled’s registration via FINRA’s BrokerCheck, keep away from wiring cash or sending cryptocurrency to unvetted people, and be cautious of anybody promising assured excessive returns or pressuring fast selections. Anybody who believes they had been victimized by the same scheme can file a grievance with the legal professional normal’s workplace on-line or by calling 1-800-771-7755.
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