Copley Man Charged With Defrauding Investors Out Of $1.8 Million

A 14-count criminal information was filed charging a Copley man with operating a fraudulent investment scheme which caused investors to lose approximately $1.8 million, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Anthony Davian, 34, was charged with one count of securities fraud, two counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and seven counts of money laundering.

“This defendant took advantage of his clients’ trust to steal from them and live the high life,” Dettelbach said. “We will continue to aggressively pursue cases in which investors are cheated out of their savings.”

The information charges that between July 2008 and July 2013, Davian used his hedge fund, Davian Capital Advisers, LLC, to promote and sell securities to at least 20 investors across several states, resulting in $1.8 million in overall investor loss. 

Davian purported to sell securities in the form of shares in the various funds he created and controlled, including Davian Capital, Rubber City Gravity, Rubber City Pure Alpha, Cleveland Precious Metals Fund, and others. Instead, he used the investors’ monies to redeem earlier investors, enrich himself and pay off personal expenses, such as the purchase of an Audi Q7 Prestige, according to the information.

The investigation revealed that Davian cajoled investors’ into giving him hundreds of thousands of dollars by claiming to manage hundreds of millions of dollars to make himself appear more sophisticated than he really was and by falsifying client account statements, according to the information.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christos N. Georgalis, Matthew Cronin and James Morford following an investigation by agents of the United States Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Service.

If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to the case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

An information is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.