A onetime Monmouth County fire chief is ordered to repay $6.7 million to scores of investors who were conned in an unregistered securities scheme.

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The decision regarding Vincent P. Falci and his wife Donna of Middletown, their son, Vincent N. Falci of Wall Township, and investment firms he founded and ran, stems from legal action brought by the New Jersey Bureau of Securities, according to the office of state Attorney General John J. Hoffman.

Falci, an unregistered agent, is also required to pay civil penalties totalling $800,000 and is barred from working in the securities business in New Jersey as a result of violations of the New Jersey Uniform Securities Law.

State investigators said that Falci convinced 182 investors - including many firefighters and police officers - that their contributions were placed in tax lien certificates, promised a seven-percent rate of return, and created annual updates to that effect.

However, he used three percent of the investments for that purpose, and spent the rest on the purchase of seven houses, authorities said.

"This case illustrates the importance of performing due diligence," said Steve Lee, Acting Director of the State Division of Consumer Affairs. "Unregistered persons or unregistered securities should raise a red flag for investors, and investors need to follow up by contacting the Bureau of Securities."

Falci's investment firms included Saber Funds LLC; Saber Funds Distributors LLC; Saber Asset Management LLC; Fixed Term Government Fund LLC; MSI Fund I LLC; MSI Fund II LLC; BWX Fund LLC; Preferred Income Portfolio I; Phoenix Equities LLC; and Hallus Realty Group LLC.

Donna Falci partly owned Saber Asset Management LLC and Saber Funds LLC. Their son partly owned Hallus Realty Group LLC and Phoenix Equities LLC.

If the terms of the consent order are met in full, $217,000 of the civil penalties will be suspended.

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