Grifphon Hedge Fund Fraudster Gets Six-And-A-Half Years

Oregon hedge fund manager Yusaf Jawed has been sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding investors of $37 million.

The sentence follows a plea deal he struck in April, pleading guilty to 17 counts of mail and wire fraud. Jawed was earlier ordered to pay $6.4 million in forfeitures, and earlier this month reached a $34 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to prosecutors, Jawed ran a Ponzi scheme at his Grifphon Asset Management for a decade. The SEC alleges that the former defrauded more than 100 investors of $37 million, making both Ponzi-type payments to earlier investors and using investor money to pay personal expenses.

"It is my fault," Jawed told U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty yesterday. "I promise to atone for it for the rest of my life."

Jawed is cooperating with prosecutors, a move that earned him a two-year reduction of his sentence. He does not have the resources to pay any of the more than $40 million he's agreed to.