Raquel Moura Borges, 55, is accused by the Southern District of New York Prosecutor’s Office of securities fraud, wire fraud, and investment advisory fraud through her company, Global Access Investment Advisor LLC (GAIA). She was arrested and faces more than 20 years in prison if found guilty.
According to Prosecutor Damian Williams, “Borges promised her clients that she would invest in bonds and other investments, but in reality, she stole her clients’ savings and lined her own pockets,” he states.
From 2017 until around 2018, Borges promised one of her clients that she would make investments on his behalf in a Brazilian company. Through three transactions, she caused approximately $2.7 million to be transferred from the client’s account to accounts controlled by her company. None of the $2.7 million was actually invested on behalf of the client. Instead, she diverted the money for her own use and spent approximately $160,000 on interior design for an apartment in Manhattan that she owned. To conceal her misappropriation of the funds, in June 2018, she sent the client a fake bank statement reflecting a $2.7 million transfer for “private placement purchase” purposes.
In another case highlighted by the Prosecutor’s Office, between 2016 and 2017, Borges caused $1.95 million to be transferred from the client’s account to an account controlled by GAIA. The alleged reason for the transfer was an investment in real estate in New York. However, on the same day of the transfer, she signed a GAIA check for $1.5 million payable to herself and described on the check: “RB’s new house.” On the same day, the check was deposited into her personal account. In an email communication with the client a few weeks later, Borges admitted that she had misappropriated the money. She said she had used the money to cover losses of other clients and that she would find a way to return the amount to the client.
This is not the first time frauds involving Brazilians have occurred in the United States. The owners of Telexfree, Carlos Roberto Costa and Carlos Nataniel Wanzeler, operated an illegal pyramid scheme between 2012 and 2014 that caused losses of over $3 billion to more than a million people in various parts of the world. Due to the number of people affected, prosecutors described this case as one of the largest frauds in recent times. Costa and Wanzeler were sentenced in Brazil to more than 12 years in prison.
Cases like these serve as a warning for Brazilians to always be vigilant against possible scams and frauds to avoid being harmed. Always seek to know who the people offering the business are and keep in mind that money doesn’t fall from the sky are the first steps to not becoming the next victim.