A Harvard Enterprise College graduate was arrested Thursday on fraud costs alleging he swindled fellow alumni of the distinguished faculty out of over $4 million in a Ponzi scheme, even assuring one investor they’d quickly “brag” about their “crazy gains” on the faculty’s reunion.
Vladimir Artamonov, 46, was taken into custody in Elkridge, Maryland, the place he lived, and was charged with securities, wire and funding adviser fraud for allegedly finishing up the scheme from September 2021 by February 2024.
An indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court docket stated Artamonov promised huge returns and little threat to dupe former classmates and different alumni into investing with him, telling one investor: “It will be your best investment. The insight is air tight.”
Messages for remark left with Harvard and a lawyer for Artamonov weren’t instantly returned. Artamonov, showing earlier than a Justice of the Peace choose in federal court docket in Maryland, was launched on $300,000 bail with directions to don’t have any contact with victims or potential trial witnesses.
“Even sophisticated investors can be conned by fraudsters, especially when personal relationships and networks are used to build a false sense of trust,” James stated.
She stated Artamonov “used his alumnus status from Harvard Business School to prey on his classmates and others while seeming legitimate and dependable.”
Artamonov, a 2003 Harvard graduate with a grasp’s in enterprise administration, used the varsity’s alumni community to establish traders, authorities stated.
The indictment stated he promised traders that he may establish securities on the verge of constructing massive features by recognizing public insurance coverage firm filings by associates of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. previous to public filings made to the Securities and Trade Fee which can be extra carefully adopted by traders.
As a substitute of following that plan, Artamonov put investor cash into dangerous short-term choices, dropping hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, usually inside days of receiving the cash from traders, the indictment stated.
It stated he repeatedly assured traders that huge income have been on the horizon and even promised one investor that it was “almost certain we will make a ton of money” quickly and that they’d “brag” about their “crazy gains” on the Harvard Enterprise College reunion.
Buyers ultimately demanded their a reimbursement, inflicting Artamonov to return lower than $400,000 by paying authentic traders with cash from new traders or by declining to reimburse them in any respect, the indictment stated.
It stated Artamonov misplaced many of the cash or spent tens of 1000’s of {dollars} on gadgets corresponding to lodging, meals and alcohol, and transportation.
U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton stated Artamonov “betrayed investors, including friends and former Ivy League classmates.”
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