George Heckler’s Hedge Funds Gets Busted and Charged by SEC
Posted on 03/16/2021
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged George Heckler (age 64), of Charleston, South Carolina, for operating a decade-long investment adviser fraud through two private hedge funds, Cassatt Short Term Trading Fund LP (Cassatt) and CV Special Opportunity Fund LP (CV Special), that Heckler formed to conceal massive losses incurred by Conestoga Holdings LP (Conestoga), another fund controlled by Heckler. On March 9, 2021, Heckler pleaded guilty for related criminal conduct in federal court in the District of New Jersey. Heckler, son of a former Hatfield Borough mayor Howard Heckler, admitted to raising US$ 20 million from investors and lying about his returns. Heckler was a longtime business associate of Brenda Smith, the Rittenhouse Square-based investment manager charged in 2019 with stealing close to US$ 60 million of investors’ money. Brenda Smith is imprisoned in North Jersey, awaiting trial, federal authorities said.
The press release states, “According to the SEC’s complaint, Heckler, after forming Cassatt and CV Special, transferred Conestoga’s poorly performing assets to those funds and then misrepresented the funds’ objectives and performance to Cassatt and CV Special investors. The complaint alleges that, between 2009 and 2019, Heckler falsely told investors that their funds were being used to engage in very short-term equity trading and that the investments were consistently generating positive returns. In truth, according to the complaint, a substantial amount of investors’ funds had not been invested at all or had been used to make Ponzi-like payments to prior investors. According to the complaint, Heckler raised at least $90 million in new investor capital through Cassatt, CV Special, and three other entities he controlled, of which over $32 million was used to repay or redeem prior investors. In addition, the Commission alleges that Heckler took over $1 million for his personal use, and Cassatt and CV Special suffered significant losses as a result of poor investments by Heckler. Heckler also allegedly concealed these losses from investors by providing them with false account statements showing fictitious gains.”
