Banker accused of fraud in Aspen and California appears in Australia
A former Australian banker accused of defrauding investors in California and Aspen before moving to Bali has been holidaying in Australia and asking for funds, despite being pursued by authorities in the United States.
In public documents, the Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Andrew Waters, a former investment banker, of reeling in wealthy investors by inviting them to dinner and befriending them, then selling them “worthless” shares in a company called ECom Products Group Corporation.
Andrew Waters, who is accused of defrauding investors through his company ECom Products Group Corporation, at his current home in Bali.
The regulator, which has been attempting to locate Mr Waters and his wife Helen, alleged in a civil penalty case that he had been continuing to solicit funds from investors since he left the US. They are not facing criminal charges.
Mr Waters, 59, and Ms Waters, 47, managed to convince well-heeled residents of Aspen and Montecito to invest in EPGC, according to the regulator’s filings with a California court.
Mr Waters told The Australian Financial Review he had been to Australia twice since leaving the US. Two people familiar with one of his trips said he was attempting to start a new business selling electric scooters.
Asked whether he had been talking to investors about a new business, Mr Waters said it was “not correct”.
In September, the businessman denied the allegations and said he had been hounded out of the US by a former adviser to Donald Trump who had used his connections to set the securities regulator on him.
“It must be the dumber [and] dumber Ponzi scheme if [it was] one,” he said at the time.
That was a reference to Stephen Calk, a Chicago banker and the former chairman of
Read more on afr.com
