Complaint Review: Ananda K. Perera - Irvine California

Ananda Perera ripped me off.  I invested in a company in 2010 that he was supposedly representing as CEO.  Turns out the company was only in his head and he sold me fake shares of a corporation that is currently inalid.

I had done business with Ananda previously.  Thought he knew what he was doing as he had started a previous company.  This company I invested in is a called Athena Technology to address next generation switching.  The concept was sound and he said he had many investors looking at it, including Alcatel Lucent and Tyco.  I gave him $50,000 based on his reputation and also coming in the company as a partner.  I wish I did my due diligence better.  Turns out, he had been trying to raise money since 2007, that the list of investors were not valid (he had none), and the other "advisors" to Athena knew nothing of Ananda and his activities.

I bought the shares from his personal amount of Athena shares he had issued to himself based on "his personal investment".  I also got another person to invest $35,000.  Things were going along initially until I started to get a funny feeling about how he was running things..  First off, he wanted to do a PPM to raise money, but never got this going.  Next he allegedly went to Blackstone financial and secured $10M anf the money transfered into our corporate account.  But he would not show anyone this money.  Then it dissappered.  Next he said he raised $50M from an Austrailian hedge fund and the money transfered into our corporate account.  Again, he wouldn't show anyone the accounts and the money also disappeared.  Maybe he stole it all.  I don't know.

I started to get really nervous and asked him to see the corporate ledger and cap tables.  Being an investor, I had a right to see who the other investors were.  He refused to show me this, violating his fiduciary responsibility to me.

Upon better investigation by me, turns out he was refused money from VC's since 2007, had raised a total of $140K+ from ~5 people and ripped us all off, had no investors or development deals going on like he said he did, and had no money come in from hedge funds.  It was all a bunch of lies. 

In talking to his other "advisors", I learned that none of them invested money in the company even though they were listed on the cap tables as shareholders.  And none of them new what Ananda's activities were.  They hadn't talked to him in a long time.

Also, I got a report from Delaware Dept. of Corporations and found out that Ananda started the company, but never paid any taxes.  The corporation was invalid.  So not only did I NOT get corporate treasury shares, I got personal shares he may have made up for an invalid corporation.  Sound like a Ponzi scheme?

I talked to a lawyer.  Unfortunarely, the costs to go after this thief are more than I can recover.  Therefore, not worth it to go this route or do an asset check.

I have not talked to Ananda since Oct. 2011.  He has literally skipped town with all our money.  At one point, he told me that I could get my money back at any time, he would buy my shares back.  I requested this in Sept 2011.  Then he renegged on this in Oct 2011 and haven't heard from him since.

Ananda is from Sri Lanka.  My guess he went back there with all our money.  Also found out he did this scam with another company called Sevantis, Inc.  Again, if you invest, do your due dilligence.

Other people involved with Ananda's scams:

S Perera
Earl Jayaraj Perera
Gamini Jayadeva Perera
Rad A Perera
Rushana Shamali Perera

but not all this people have been confirmed.

Ananda uses the following bank account to receive his money.  Turns out it is not even his:

US Bank
Name:  SN Perera
Account number:  153464292918
Routing number:  122235821

Please stay away from Ananda Perera.  Don't believe his lies.  And don't give him any money.