A Marine Corps veteran has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding 24 investors, including two veterans who served with him, via a $2.5 million Ponzi scheme.
According to the SEC's complaint, filed May 15 in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the case involves the misappropriation and misuse of investor assets by Christopher Aubin and his companies, Anchor State Capital LLC and Anchor State Properties LLC.
Aubin and relief defendant Ashley Corcoran "engaged in a fraudulent scheme and made and used false and misleading statements in connection with the sale of Anchor State securities," the complaint states. The commission estimates that the two raised over $2.5 million from at least 24 investors between at least April 2023 and at least December 2024.
On its website, at least on or about June 22, 2024, Anchor State "advertised itself as providing 'Access To Capital When You Need It,' and further said that it both provided lending services to borrowers and provided 'Tailored Financial Planning from Accredited Professionals,'” the complaint states.
Investors typically transferred their investment funds to Anchor State by check, wire transfer or, in a few instances, by giving cash to Aubin, whose "sales pitch to potential investors included his trustworthiness as a Marine Corp veteran," the SEC complaint maintains.
At least two of Aubin's investors were Marine Corps veterans who had served with him.
Double-Digit Returns, Missing Payments
Anchor State’s investment contracts stated that investors would receive returns of between 12% and 19% for investments lasting between one and eight months.
The investment contracts typically stated that Anchor State was “engaged in the business of LENDING (e.g. expansion, construction flips, hard money, real-estate purchases, etc.)”
"The investment contracts each matured on a specified date (usually between one and eight months in the future) and typically provided that investors would be repaid their principal plus their investment return when the investment matured," the order states.
Several investment contracts provided that investors would be paid monthly interest, with the principal to be repaid when the investment matured.
In mid-2024, Aubin and Corcoran were sued in state court by two investors whose investment contracts had matured but had not been repaid in full, according to the order.
Other investors who were in a similar position joined in that lawsuit in December, the SEC states. As of the date of the SEC complaint, Aubin and Corcoran "have failed to repay at least $2 million in investment principal to investors with matured investment contracts," which does not account for the investment returns that the two promised to these investors.
Aubin and Corcoran issued Anchor State securities to investors in the form of “Investment Contracts,” “Real Estate Partner Contracts” or “Partner Contracts.”
These contracts, typically signed by Anchor State and by each investor, promised investors that, among other variables, "investors would be repaid their principal and their investment profit when the investment contracts matured, from the principal and interest payments made by the loan borrowers," according to the SEC.
In truth, the regulator said, Aubin and Corcoran "made very few real loans to borrowers and instead used investors’ funds largely to make payments to earlier investors" and to pay for their own business and personal expenses — including lavish meals, luxury travel and vehicles.
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