A Lone Tree man who allegedly swindled millions of dollars from investors in Colorado and eight other states has been extradited from Argentina to face charges in Colorado, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said today in a news release.
William L. Walters, 45, is now in the Denver County Jail and will be transferred to Douglas County where he will face trial.
The FBI tracked down Walters in Argentina after his passport was flagged by Interpol. An Argentinian court approved Walters’ extradition earlier this month.
Walters fled Colorado in August 2006 allegedly without repaying money he obtained from investors for his day-trading business. He was indicted by the state grand jury in May 2007.
Walters was accused of running an elaborate Ponzi scheme. The grand jury alleged that he collected more than $23 million between January 2001 and July 2006 from victims in Colorado, Wyoming, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Walters’ Colorado victims resided in Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams counties, according to the indictment.
Walters owned and operated Samurai Capital and Mana Trading Co.
He had two online investment accounts through CyberTrade, one each in the name of Mana and Samurai, for day trading.
According to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Walters used his victims’ investments for his own personal expenses and to make “interest payments” to other investors. Prosecutors allege that records recovered from Walters’ trading accounts show he didn’t engage in day trading between August 2003 and March 2005. Between January 2001 and September 2006, he incurred cumulative losses on his accounts, according to prosecutors.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also sued Walters in early 2009, claiming that his day-trading business was a Ponzi scheme that fleeced more than 80 investors with promises of 20 to 40 percent annual returns.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
