Shane Hvizdzak stands accused of stealing $26 million from investors in—you guessed it—his cryptocurrency hedge fund. He’s got nothing to say about that, other than that he didn’t do any of what the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges, which is that he spirited that money first into his own accounts and then abroad or into untraceable digital wallets in the ether, lying about the returns on the same the whole time. Unfortunately for Shane, his older brother stands accused of the same, and isn’t going as quietly.
While Sean Hvizdzak denies any involvement in wrongdoing, he indicated that he became aware that his brother was accepting funds for investment in cryptocurrency outside of the hedge fund and using his personal accounts, and was using a false audit report. He resigned and encouraged his brother to pay back the investors, the response alleged….
“In short, there is no giant securities fraud or Ponzi scheme here and certainly none that was knowingly or intentionally perpetrated by Sean Hvizdzak,” the response alleged…. “The allegations improperly treat Sean Hvizdzak and Shane Hvizdzak collectively.”
Lest you think ill of the elder Hvizdzak as a brother, however, his side of the story is not all bad for his allegedly prodigal little brother.
“Sean Hvizdzak believes that several investors were paid back, including investment gains,” the response stated. And, the response continued, he believes that the assets in question are in the hedge fund and that investors can be repaid when the asset freeze by the SEC is ended.
You see, investors regaled of tales of 100%-plus returns where there were allegedly only losses, and worried about reports that the claimed $107 million is actually 53 cents? It’s really the SEC you should be mad about, which if it just got out of the way, you’d surely see your share of those 53 cents promptly.
Bradford brothers file answers to SEC fraud case [Olean Times Herald]