SEC charges Boateng, firms over alleged $16M Ponzi

Ernest Ossei Boateng and two companies he controls — Intercontinental Wealth Network LLC and I Wealth Network LP — face SEC charges over an alleged $16 million Ponzi scheme running from at least January 2020 through at least March 2026.

The SEC’s allegations include the following uses of investor funds. According to the SEC, Boateng directed more than $5.8 million toward personal expenses, including buying, renovating, and furnishing his home. That’s at least 36.25% of the roughly $16 million raised — calculated as $5.8 million divided by the SEC’s alleged $16 million total.

Another approximately $6.6 million, or 41.25% of the SEC’s alleged $16 million total, allegedly went to Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors. The SEC further alleges Boateng put investor money into high-risk, speculative day trading that produced more than $750,000 in losses, equal to at least 4.69% of the total raised.

More than 200 investors were allegedly targeted — people the agency describes as having limited investing experience. Thomas P. Smith, Jr., associate director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, said the group included “retirees, taxi drivers, home health care providers, students, an ailing widow with young children, and at least two churches and one prayer group.”

Smith also said the defendants told victims their investments were safe and without risk, backed by claims of “‘financial, investment insurance.'” He called that “as big of a red flag as we see in these types of scams.”

This article is based on the SEC announcement alone; a substantive independent source has not been obtained before publication.

The defendants face charges under the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Boateng and Intercontinental face additional charges under the antifraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and conduct-based injunctions against Boateng and Intercontinental.