Surage Kamal Roshan Perera, a former broker, and his company, Janues Capital, are accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of defrauding at least one investor out of millions of dollars by misrepresenting investment opportunities and trading strategies, hiding trading losses, and using money borrowed from others in a Ponzi-like scheme to pay the victim the promised returns. In court, the SEC was granted immediate relief, including an asset freeze and a temporary restraining order.

In the period from February 2022 to March 2023, Perera, a resident of Long Island, New York, allegedly misled an unnamed investor by claiming that Janues had access to certain restricted securities  at lower price due to his relationships with big, institutional investors. He allegedly further said that he used a trading method known as “Options Straddles,” which would not only eliminate trading losses but also ensure profits on some investments of up to 9% with a potential for returns of 50%.

Perera and Janues, according to the lawsuit, stole at least $3.5 million from the investor to use for extremely risky and leveraged trading. Perera transacted assets worth more than $2.5 billion in total, suffering trading losses of around $3 million. Next, according to allegations, Perera gave the investor bogus confirmations and account statements that incorrectly depicted the anticipated returns in order to conceal the theft and losses. The complaint claims that Perera made additional attempts to conceal the losses by paying the investor in a Ponzi-like scheme using money from other sources.

The asset freeze that the SEC was able to get stops any further loss of investor money. The SEC is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, permanent injunctions, interest, and penalties.

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