An investment advisor working for a Dallas company defrauded professional athletes of $33 million and diverted the money to an online sports and entertainment ticket business, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claimed in a lawsuit.
The claim, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas, names Ash Narayan, of Newport Coast, California, The Ticket Reserve Inc., CEO Richard M. Harmon, and chief operating officer John A. Kaptrosky.
The SEC claims Narayan transferred millions of dollars from unsuspecting clients’ accounts to The Ticket Reserve, a Chicago-based company on whose board he served.
The suit was filed under seal May 24 but made public on Tuesday.
The payments were sometimes made using forged or copied signatures, according to the complaint.
In exchange, Naraya secretly obtained $2 million in “undisclosed finder’s fees,” the suit claims.
Narayan was based in California but worked for Dallas-based RGT Capital Management, Ltd., the SEC said.
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RGT terminated Narayan in February, according to a news release.
Harmon's attorney, Lanny Davis, denied wrongdoing in a prepared statement.
"Neither Rick Harmon nor his chief operating officer, John Kaptrosky, did anything wrong while Mr. Harmon was CEO of The Ticket Reserve, and they and the company were in fact victims of someone else's alleged wrongdoing," he said.
Attorneys for the others named in the SEC case did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
