New Jersey man charged for multi year, multimillion dollar fraud

Date: Oct. 25, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Thomas Fattorusso, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); James E. Dennehy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Francis J. Russo, the Director of the New York Field Office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), announced today the arrest of Arsen Lusher, who orchestrated a scheme to defraud more than 20 investors of more than $5 million between 2017 and 2021. Lusher was arrested earlier today and will be presented this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Stein.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: "For years, the defendant allegedly solicited investors' funds by representing that he had a hugely profitable trucking business. That wasn't true, and the defendant instead allegedly used the funds to run a classic Ponzi scheme, enriching himself along the way. When luck ran out, the victims sustained millions of dollars in losses. Today's arrest serves as a stark reminder that the illusion of success built on fraud and deceit will inevitably fail."

IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Thomas Fattorusso said: "It's alleged Lusher acted with impunity for years, deceiving over 20 investors out of more than five million dollars. He created a 'get-rich-quick' scheme, then sold his victims a dream of high-returns on their investment. Instead of a profit, investors were left with a loss of money and of trust. Today's arrest ensures that Lusher can now be held accountable for his alleged fraud."

FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy said: "For four years, Arsen Lusher allegedly defrauded numerous victims of more than $5 million by cycling their investments to conceal the business's inability to produce its promised returns, and altered official tax documents to reflect inflated balances in furtherance of this ploy. The alleged empty assurances allowed the defendant to wrongfully haul in funding from investors and selfishly benefit from their losses. The FBI will continue to disrupt and hit the brakes on any investment scheme rooted in deceit."

CBP Director Francis J. Russo said: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection is proud to have played an important role in this investigation that resulted in the takedown of an elaborate conspiracy to defraud the United States.  This case serves as a great example of how collaborative law enforcement efforts can dismantle nefarious enterprises that cause economic harm to their competitors."

According to the allegations in the Complaint unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:

Between 2017 and 2021, Lusher engaged in a scheme to defraud more than 20 victims of more than $5 million. Lusher and a small group of trusted lieutenants acting at Lusher's direction solicited investments from the victims, usually by representing that Lusher had a profitable trucking business that enjoyed delivery and installation contracts with multiple large retailers. Lusher and his lieutenants typically represented that the victims' investments would fund the purchase of trucks, each truck costing around $45,000. Through written and signed investment agreements, Lusher and his lieutenants normally guaranteed the victims that their investments would generate high rates of return over a fixed period-typically between 30 and 40 percent over one or two years. In that way, Lusher succeeded in raising more than $40 million.

In fact, though, Lusher did not have a large trucking business. Instead, Lusher had a small trucking business that performed a small amount of work-less than $300,000-for just one large retailer. The amount that Lusher earned from his legitimate trucking business could not have compensated the victims and produced the promised returns.

Indeed, Lusher did not use the victims' funds to purchase trucks or to grow his trucking business. Instead, for years, Lusher engaged in a Ponzi scheme: Lusher paid earlier victims with later victims' funds. Lusher also used the victims' funds to enrich himself, such as by gambling or shopping for high-end goods. In that way, Lusher was able to sustain his scheme for a number of years. But in early 2021, the scheme collapsed, leaving numerous victims with losses totaling more than $5 million.

Lusher used fake documents to carry out his scheme. For example, in December 2020, Lusher caused to be sent to a particular victim an apparent U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation for one of the companies that Lusher controlled and used to perpetrate his scheme. That alleged tax return was falsified: the accountant listed as having prepared the return did not, in fact, prepare it. And in February 2021, Lusher altered account balances on an email sent by a bank employee to make it appear that Lusher's companies had healthy account balances when, in fact, they did not. Specifically, while the bank employee wrote that Lusher's companies had account balances of $8,767.26 and $320.76, Lusher altered the bank employee's email before forwarding it to state that his companies had account balances of $1,228,767.26 and $987,320.76 (italics and bold added). In other words, Lusher altered the bank employee's email such that the account balances for his companies were approximately 140 times and 3,078 times greater than they actually were. Lusher then caused that falsified email to be sent to a particular victim.

Lusher of Millstone, New Jersey, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison.

The statutory maximum penalties in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the IRS-CI, The FBI, the CBP, and the New York City Police Department.

This case is being handled by the Office's General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Rosenberg is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.

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