Dearborn Man Steals $440K Through Investment Scam: Feds

DEARBORN, MI — A Dearborn man was sentenced to prison Thursday after admitting he stole approximately $500,000 from people pretending to be an investment manager, United States Attorney Dawn N. Ison said.

27-year-old Ali Rameh Bazzi was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison, the news release said.

"This defendant lived lavishly on funds that he stole from those who entrusted him with their investments," Ison said. "His lies and deceit were costly to his victims and to the community as a whole. Today’s sentence was wholly warranted and I hope it will deter anyone seeking to enrich themselves by defrauding innocent investors."

Officials said Bazzi began the scheme in March 2018, when he told people he was an investment manager who used a unique trading model to generate high rates of return for investors. Up until March 2020, he took approximately $540,000 from nearly thirty investors, the news release said.

Bazzi told these investors that he would be investing their funds in commodities and foreign exchange markets that would generate substantial profits for his clients, the news release said.

In addition, Bazzi corroborated those claims by providing his investors with phony individualized account statements at regular intervals that showed trading activity and the growth in the value of their investments, the news release said.

Bazzi instead diverted over $441,000 to his own personal uses and expenses. He leased exotic sports cars, bought jewelry and lived a comfortable lifestyle, the news release said. He returned approximately $99,000 back to investors, however, he was still ordered to pay $441,231 in restitution to his victims.