Cardis Aaron Fischman Firm ran Ponzi scheme by claiming Jay-Z connections cedarhurst new york
Firm ran Ponzi scheme by claiming Jay-Z connections
By Kaja Whitehouse
July 30, 2017 | 10:37pm
A Long Island firm lied about having ties to Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation to bilk investors out of $70 million in a Bernie Madoff-style scheme, according to court papers and alleged victims.
Among the investors in the credit-card company were Ben Brafman,
the high-profile criminal-defense lawyer representing “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli, and Charles Alpert,
heir to the Alpert family’s textile and real-estate fortune, sources told The Post.
Cardis International, which is based in Cedarhurst in Nassau County, is being probed by federal prosecutors in Central Islip over the alleged fraud,
according to the documents and sources.
Cardis said it had been hired by Roc for bill processing in e-mails sent to investors, but a Jay-Z exec, Briant Biggs, told The Post it wasn’t true.
One investor said co-founder Aaron Fischman lured her into investing $300,000 in Cardis by claiming — Madoff-style — he didn’t need her money but would make “a generous exception”
for her to invest. Cardis was more than $3 million in debt at the time, her Brooklyn federal lawsuit claims.
Cardis lawyer Andrew Goodman said he is “not aware of any requests from the federal government.” Fischman didn’t return a request for comment.