[ad_1]
LiveWell CEO Michael Hild (Photo of BizSense file)
Michael Hild, founder and CEO of the Chesterfield-based Livewell Financial Mortgage Company, collapsed on Thursday. He was arrested and charged by the federal government for running a multi-million dollar bond program.
Hild, according to the US District Attorneys' Office of the Southern District of New York, was arrested in Richmond this morning and will be brought to justice this afternoon. Live Well, Chief Financial Officer Eric Rohr and Executive Chairman Darren Stumberger were also charged, but were not arrested. They pleaded guilty and cooperate with the authorities.
The three executives, as well as Live Well, were also charged in a civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC stated that Rohr and Stumberger had consented to partial judgments against them.
The civil and criminal charges claim, according to the first advertisements, that Live Well, under Hild's leadership, fraudulently inflated the value of its portfolio of complex reverse mortgages. It qualifies the alleged actions as a "bond management scheme".
"Thanks to this so-called ploy – which Hild called a" stand-alone money machine "- Live Well was able to borrow tens of millions of dollars more from its lenders through securities transactions than it would have done. could borrow if the bonds had been properly valued able to fund sumptuous compensation programs for Hild and others, "the SEC said in a press release.
The SEC says the so-called ploy collapsed earlier this year. Live Well closed suddenly and without explanation in May, laying off all of its workforce and letting the lenders hold the bag for tens of millions of people in debt. These lenders then forced the company into bankruptcy, which continues to occur in Delaware.
The government stated that it obtained a restraining order after the indictment in order to preserve Hild's assets, "including various real estate and commercial interests in the Richmond area – owned directly or indirectly by HILD and, as alleged, bought with the product of the scheme ".
The SEC demands a jury trial and monetary penalties, and alleges violations of anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws.
It's breaking news. Stay tuned to BizSense tomorrow to learn more about this story.
[ad_2]
Source link