Several dozen creditors of Providence Financial Investments attended a public hearing in Miami this week in the bankruptcy case, as pressure mounts internationally against the Miami-based investment company that allegedly took in millions of dollars from hundreds of investors from around the world before declaring itself insolvent, the Miami Herald reported today. The company filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 28 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of Florida after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved to shut the company down in June, calling the investment scheme involving factoring in Brazil an “ongoing fraudulent and unregistered securities offering.” The securities that offered annual returns of 12 percent to 13 percent had not been registered with the SEC, and brokers selling them were unregistered, the agency said in its complaint seeking a jury trial. In addition, Providence hasn’t accounted for the money it has collected — about $64 million in U.S. investors’ money alone, the SEC alleges — and its poor financial condition wasn’t disclosed to its investors, while it continued to solicit the nest eggs of more than 400 investors around the country.
