"N.H. man charged with investment fraud" by LYNNE TUOHY | Associated Press, January 25, 2013
CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire prosecutors said a Dover man pocketed nearly $300,000 investors gave him to buy and rehabilitate distressed properties.
Nicholas Skaltsis of Dover was charged Thursday with 19 counts of felony theft for operating what prosecutors say was a fraudulent investment scheme.
He was arraigned in Rochester Circuit Court and applied for a public defender. No pleas were entered.
Skaltsis was arrested at the New Hampshire State Hospital, where he is a patient.
He tried to hide in a mental hospital?
In seeking a high bond, Senior Assistant Attorney General James Boffetti told the judge that Skaltsis poses a danger to himself and had attempted suicide sometime after the state Bureau of Securities Regulation started its own investigation last August.
How come these guys always seem to f*** up, and it calls into question those bizarre stories and explanations that usually accompany a successful "suicide" of such types.
Of course, everything in my paper is questioned these days.
The judge set bail at $300,000, effective upon Skaltsis’s release from the hospital.
Boffetti said Skaltsis was arrested at the hospital and returned there by law enforcement officials after his arraignment.
Boffetti said that Skaltsis operates Liberty Realty Trust and Phoenix Asset Group. He said Skaltsis solicited a number of people in the Dover area to invest in distressed properties, promising to return the funds with as much as 14 percent interest.
Prosecutors say Skaltsis bought no properties and failed to repay investors $287,000.
Jeffrey Spill, deputy director of enforcement for the Bureau of Securities Regulation, said Skaltsis’s operation amounted to a Ponzi scheme.
‘‘He used new money to pay old debts, comingling investor funds in a personal account and converted investor funds for personal use,’’ Spill said.
Spill said investors seeking better returns in a down economy often miss the warning signs of a Ponzi scheme, such as a guarantee of higher-than-average returns....
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