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4d ago

Ex-Bay Area Advisor Indicted on $9.5 Million Ponzi Scheme Charges

Authorities allege he continued soliciting funds for 17 years after losing his broker license in 2016, allowing the fraud to span decades.

A general view shows the exterior of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and US Courthouse in San Francisco, California, on January 18, 2023. – A lawyer for angry Tesla investors told a California courtroom on January 18, 2023, that CEO Elon Musk “lied” about having funding in place to take the company private, costing his clients millions of dollars. More than four years after firing off tweets saying he had funding secured to buy the electric car maker at $420 a share, investors who felt burned by the misleading statements began to make their case in the San Francisco court. (Photo by David Odisho / AFP) (Photo by DAVID ODISHO/AFP via Getty Images)
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Overview

  • A federal grand jury unsealed an indictment on July 21 charging 77-year-old Edwin Emmett Lickiss Jr. with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with an alleged $9.5 million investment fraud scheme.
  • He is scheduled for an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco on July 22 and faces maximum sentences of 20 years in prison on the wire fraud charge and 10 years on the money laundering count.
  • Prosecutors allege Lickiss ran Foundation Financial Group in Danville and Alamo from 1998 until September 2024, securing at least $9.5 million from more than 50 investors across Northern California, Idaho and beyond.
  • Despite FINRA suspending his broker license in 2014 and revoking it in 2016, he allegedly continued to promise fictitious high-yield government bonds and issued fraudulent promissory notes to lure new investments.
  • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a parallel civil enforcement action in the Northern District of California, accusing Lickiss of securities violations alongside the criminal prosecution.