A California man once touted as an investing "young-gun" and "prodigy" has been accused of defrauding investors in a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme.
Mihir Deepak Sukthankar, arrested in Texas this month, faces felony wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in Kentucky, federal court records show. An associate, Dylan Bryce Baker, arrested in Florida, has been charged with alleged conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy violations.
Prosecutors list over $6 million in bank transfers that they associate with the alleged scheme, including $5.2 million that a Kentucky resident was induced to deposit into accounts controlled by Sukthankar and Baker, according to the indictment. Other individuals, known and unknown, also conspired in the alleged scheme, the document states.
A May 2021 article in L'Officiel Monaco described Sukthankar, then 19, as "a prodigy ... a young trader who is making waves in the stock market by spotting movements and key investments before many of the other big players." Calling him a young gun and rising star of modern trading who fell in love with the stock market in high school, the publication showed him leaning against a BMW.
A 2020 press release described Sukthankar as "an eighteen-year-old stock investor with big dreams and impressive ways of going for them."
Prosecutors allege that Sukthankar presented himself as the owner of a firm conducting trades in various financial instruments and operating under various names, soliciting individuals and others to become clients, the indictment alleges.
Baker presented himself as an entrepreneur, investor and client of Sukthankar's, recruiting potential clients for the trading operation, prosecutors allege.
From June 2021 to last week, Sukthankar schemed to defraud his clients and obtain money and property by means of "materially false and
fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises," prosecutors allege.
He commingled client funds with other money he controlled, using them partly on his own expenses and to finance his lifestyle, depleting client funds and lying to investors about fund performance and their balances, they say.
"Sukthankar repaid his clients with funds deposited from newer clients recruited into his trading operation, essentially managing the trading
operation as a Ponzi scheme," prosecutors contend.
Tarrant County, Texas, records indicate that Sukthankar, who has a Fremont, California, address, was arrested Aug. 9 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He was released on personal recognizance. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Lexington, Kentucky, on Aug. 25.
The federal defender assigned to Sukthankar in Texas didn't immediately respond to an email seeking information, nor did the U.S. attorney's office in Kentucky.
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