Hedge Fund Fraudster Gets 11 Years

Scam artist Robert Sucarato may have a better understanding of what investors in his New York Financial Co. hedge fund went through when he ripped them off.

Fourteen months after pleading guilty to defrauding investors of $1.6 million—to charges that federal sentencing guidelines say call for between six-and-a-half and eight years in prison—Sucarato learned the hard way that those guidelines are no more to be relied on than the statements he made to clients. The Holmdel, N.J., resident was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday.

Sucarato was also ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution.

Sucarato was arrested in 2010, accused of lying to investors about, well, just about everything. He allegedly told investors his hedge fund managed $7.2 billion when, in fact, its accounts had just $110,000. He allegedly claimed to have a degree from New York University, when he didn't, and, for good measure, allegedly "embellished biographies" of the firm's other executives. He also allegedly boasted of offices in New York and Chicago which did not exist.

Prosecutors said of the $1.7 million NYFC raised, Sucarato stole almost $500,000, lost another $850,000 and used the rest to prop up his Ponzi scheme.