New Jersey Man Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison for Defrauding Investors Out of Up to $1.5 Million

CHICAGO — An investment manager has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for swindling clients out of up to $1.5 million.

EUGENE Z. NOWAK, 57, of Jersey City, New Jersey, represented himself as the president of Global Funding Partners, a Nevada corporation that purported to be an investment firm with complex business dealings with large multinational banking and financial services institutions.  Nowak pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on May 10, 2022.  In his plea agreement, Nowak admitted that, between 2013 and 2016, he falsely represented to investors, including Chicago-based investors, that their funds would be used to provide “bridge funding,” or temporary funding, for Global Funding Partners to close a $33 million financial transaction involving a large international bank.  Nowak admitted to falsely promising that investors would receive high-yield returns in a short amount of time, and that they could cancel their investment at any time for a full refund with interest.

In reality, Nowak and Global Funding Partners were not parties to a transaction with any large international bank.  Nowak instead diverted investor funds to cover his personal expenses, including payments to a car dealership and pawn shop in Naples, Fla.  Nowak further admitted that he thereby caused multiple investors to suffer losses up to $1,500,000.

On November 9, 2022, at Nowak’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly imposed a 36-month prison sentence, to be followed by 2 years’ supervised release, and ordered that Nowak pay restitution to the defrauded investors. 

The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Kai Pickens, Acting Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service Chicago Division; and John S. Morales, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.  The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman.