Sham investment advisor falsely claims Winklevoss ties: prosecutors

By Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An investment advisor to CEOs was arraigned on Wednesday and charged with scheming to defraud, in part by falsely claiming business relationships with Tyler Winklevoss and others associated with the founding of Facebook, prosecutors said.

    Appearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Arun Ganguly, 37, was accused of being a con artist who impersonated Winklevoss, his father, Howard Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, another so-called founder of the social network, in hundreds of emails. He also allegedly sent forged documents.

Defense attorney Vinoo Varghese, who represented Ganguly in court, described him as an investment advisor from the San Francisco Bay area.

Ganguly is pleading not guilty and "looks forward to clearing his name," Varghese said.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Steven Statsinger ordered Ganguly held in lieu of $1 million bond. Aside from scheming to defraud, he was charged with grand larceny, identity theft and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Beth Potashnick described Ganguly as "a confidence man in a business suit" who pretended to be the money manager of a non-existent family trust and managing director of the Ganguly Investment Group, where he supposedly advised in raising over $100 million to invest in early stage technology companies.

    According to the criminal complaint, Ganguly duped a managing director of an SEC-registered investment firm into hiring him as a $5,000 a month financial consultant and advisor in 2012. Prosecutors identified the managing director as Carl Kleidman, then of Vision Capital Advisors.

    Ganguly claimed the Winklevosses would pay a finder's fee if he found an overseas buyer for their Facebook Inc shares before the social network company's initial public offering in 2012, prosecutors said. He also claimed the Winklevosses would invest up to $20 million in Kleidman's private equity fund, Fortitude Partners.

    Tyler Winklevoss never met Ganguly and the family never did business with him, Potashnick said.

    Winklevoss and his twin, Cameron, discovered evidence of a scam six months ago, brought in an investigative team and went to the Manhattan District Attorney's office with their findings, according to a statement from their lawyer, Tyler Meade.

    The twins are known for their legal battles with Mark Zuckerberg over the origins of Facebook, made famous in the 2010 movie, "The Social Network."

Ganguly has worked for former Chesapeake Energy Corp chief executive Aubrey McClendon and for Stephen Norris, a co-founder of Carlyle Group, among other corporate leaders, according to prosecutors.

    McClendon, who co-founded Chesapeake in 1989, left after clashes over spending with the company's board and a series of Reuters investigations led to civil and criminal probes of the company.

    Efforts to reach Kleidman, Norris and McClendon after hours were unsuccessful.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Stephen Coates)