SEC Charges Former Trucking Execs Over $112 Million Ponzi Scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged two more Florida executives in connection with a truck investment venture that allegedly defrauded investors of $112 million.

Ricardi Celicourt, 40, of Coconut Creek, and Brisly Guillaume, 39, of Boynton Beach, were named in a lawsuit filed by the SEC in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Both are charged with violations of securities registration and broker-dealer registration provisions.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that from April 2021 to June 2023, Celicourt and Guillaume helped raise nearly $109 million from 1,500 investors, primarily Haitian-Americans, through an unregistered securities offering by Royal Bengal Logistics (RBL) of Coral Springs, Florida.

Celicourt, RBL’s vice president of business development and investor relations, and Guillaume, RBL’s director of business development and investor relations, sold investments to the public without being registered as brokers or dealers. According to court documents, the two executives received approximately $1.3 million in transaction-based bonuses for their roles in the alleged Ponzi scheme.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website states that Royal Bengal Logistics’ common carrier authority was granted in August 2018 but was revoked in August 2023 after the SEC shut down the company with a restraining order. Before its closure, the company purportedly had 91 drivers and 166 power units.

RBL offered four investment opportunities, including short- and long-term investment programs. The short-term investment required a minimum of $25,000, while the long-term owner financing program required a minimum of $60,000. RBL also offered a trailer program with a minimum investment of $50,000 and a $55,000 investment for its truck program, which supposedly used the funds to purchase a semi-truck on behalf of the investor.

Image: United States District Court Southern District of Florida SEC v. Royal Bengal Logistics and Sanjay Singh

The Man Behind the Plan

In June 2023, FreightWaves reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested and charged Sanjay Singh, 43, of Coral Springs, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and engaging in transactions involving unlawful proceeds.

According to the DOJ, from January 2020 until his arrest, Singh and his co-conspirators misrepresented RBL as a thriving and successful trucking business while it was actually losing money. The indictment stated that Singh and his co-conspirators misled investors about the risks, profitability, payment methods, and use of funds related to RBL’s trucking operations.

Federal investigators alleged that Singh misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds for personal expenses, including home renovations and mortgage payments, and speculative trading on margin.

The SEC also filed a complaint against Singh in June 2023, accusing him of fraudulently raising approximately $112 million from investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme. Singh, through RBL, promised high-yield investment programs with returns ranging from 12.5% to 325%.

Singh and RBL assured investors that their money would be used to expand Royal Bengal’s operations and fleet of semi-trucks and trailers, claiming the company generated $1 million in revenue per month and had a fleet of over 200 semi-trucks.

In reality, the SEC alleged that Royal Bengal operated at a loss and used approximately $70 million of new investor funds to make Ponzi-like payments to other investors. Singh allegedly misappropriated nearly $14 million for himself and others and diverted over $19 million to brokerage accounts for speculative trading, resulting in over $1 million in losses.

On July 17, Singh’s attorney, Victor Van Dyke, filed a pretrial motion seeking to exclude evidence and arguments related to the SEC case and business losses incurred by investors after Royal Bengal Logistics entered receivership. Singh’s jury trial is set for Oct. 7 in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale.

Sources: FreightWaves | Sourcing Journal