Glenview Real Estate Broker Sentenced To 40 Months In Federal Prison For $4.2 Million Investor Fraud

CHICAGO — A former managing director of Panorama Global Partners, LLC, a company that falsely purported to trade in certain financial instruments, was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining approximately $4.2 million in investor funds and for misappropriating approximately $3.9 million of those funds.

The defendant, RICHARD DEMARIA, 45, of Glenview, was also ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman. DeMaria, who pleaded guilty in December 2013, was ordered to surrender to begin serving his sentence on May 19.

Before imposing the sentence, Judge Gettleman stated that the sentence he imposed sent a message that “there will be a price to pay for” investor fraud.

DeMaria admitted that between approximately August 2008 and January 2009, he and a business associate fraudulently obtained approximately $4.2 million from victim investors, by falsely telling victim investors that their money would be used to lease and trade certain financial instruments DeMaria did not plan to, and did not use most of the investor money for the promised purpose, but rather misappropriated the money. In addition, as DeMaria soon learned, neither he nor his business associate had the ability to lease or trade these instruments. DeMaria used at least $3.9 million of investor money for other purposes, including $90,000 on an Aston Martin for a business associate and $600,000 on an Indiana home for another business associate. DeMaria also used approximately $70,000 of investor funds for construction on his ex-wife’s Evanston home and almost $2 million on business expenses related to DeMaria’s struggling real estate development business.

DeMaria entered into so-called “Subscription Agreements” with victim investors, on behalf of Panorama Global Partners, LLC, in which he promised to use their funds to purchase financial instruments. When victim investors asked for a return of their investment, DeMaria lied to them, saying that he had invested the money, when in fact he had misappropriated it.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Robert J. Holley, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago. The government was assisted by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The government was represented by Assistant United States Attorney Shoshana Gillers.