Dallas: 130 Million fraud targeting Indian Americans with fake profits

There is a fraud allegedly being conducted by Nanban Ventures LLC, its three founders Gopala Krishnan, Manivannan Shanmugam, and Sakthivel Palani Gounder and three other entities that the these founders control.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on October 16th 2023 that it obtained a temporary restraining order, asset freeze, and other emergency relief to halt an ongoing fraud targeting the Indian American community that has raised nearly $130 million since April of 2021.

The SEC’s complaint, unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleges that the defendants raised more than $89 million from more than 350 investors for investments in purported venture capital funds that the Founders managed through Nanban Ventures LLC and more than $39 million from 10 investors that invested directly in the three other entities controlled by the Founders.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that the Founders overstated the profitability of the investments and paid investors at least $17.8 million in fake profits that were actually Ponzi payments. The SEC’s complaint further alleges that defendants misrepresented Krishnan’s expertise and success using his eponymous “GK Strategies” options trading method.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Krishnan claimed in a YouTube video that he achieved returns of “more than a hundred percent,” and Nanban Ventures claimed in its venture capital funds’ private placement memorandums that Krishnan would manage the funds to generate returns that would “consistently overperform the S&P 500 Index.” For more information, visit the news source www.SEC.gov.