The U.S. Attorney filed documents yesterday charging 30-year-old Anchorage resident Garrett Elder, sole owner of Tycoon Trading LLC, The Daily Bread Fund LLC, and other entities, with executing an investment scheme that resulted in approximately $25 million in losses to over 130 victims, many who are well known. The State of Alaska has said the investment company was operating illegally in Alaska.
From about 2016 through October 2022, Garrett Elder was running a scheme and convinced investors to give him between $30 and $34 million in investments. Over 138 victims are said to have lost their funds as Elder gambled them away in risky stock trades.
The scheme began about early 2016 when Elder’s parents provided Elder between $10,000 and $20,000 to invest in stocks and foreign currencies. Elder deposited those funds into an entity he had created called Tycoon Trading, LLC. He lost all of his parents’ funds.
Despite the losses, Elder told his family and friends about his trading business, and some expressed an interest in investing. Elder did not tell these targets of his scheme that he had lost the money provided by his parents. Instead, Elder gave victims the false impression that he was a successful trader.
Based on these omissions and false impressions, between 2016 and March 2018, investors transferred approximately $500,000 to Tycoon Trading for Elder to invest. Elder began losing money, yet created false quarterly performance reports for his victims, stating that the investments were earning positive returns. By March 2018, Elder had lost almost all the victims’ money while trading and only had approximately $10,000 to $15,000 left in his trading account.
In March 2018, Elder disclosed to the victims that their investments had failed, but he did not tell them he had falsified the quarterly performance reports he had been providing them.
Notwithstanding the near total losses, Elder continued to seek new investors, still claiming to be a successful trader. By the end of 2018, Elder had approximately 30 new investors who were investing substantially more money than the original group of investors.
In 2019, Elder created another entity called The Daily Bread Fund, LLC.
From 2019 through 2022, Elder continued to solicit new investors through Tycoon Trading and the Daily Bread Fund by claiming to be a successful trader and paying a limited amount of distributions to select investors to provide the appearance of investment successes.
While getting new investors, he continued to lost money. Despite continued mounting losses, Elder again created and emailed to investors fake reports indicating positive returns. Elder also used some of the victims’ money on personal expenditures, including real estate investments, vehicles, a boat, a camper, bicycles, tools, and jewelry.
In total, the amount of funds transferred to Elder via Tycoon Trading, The Daily Bread Fund, and related entities is presently estimated to be approximately $30 million to $34 million from 138 victim investors.
By October 2022, although some money was distributed back to certain investors, Elder had lost the majority of investments, resulting in approximately $25 million in losses to victims.
Elder has agreed to the government filing an “information charging him with wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343,” the U.S. Attorney for Alaska stated.
He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The you believe you are a victim of Garrett Elder’s investment scheme, contact the FBI, which is the investigating agency, at: (907) 276-4441.
Meanwhile there are at least two civil lawsuits in Alaska against Garrett from investors who claim they were harmed by his scheme. In October, the Banking and Securities Division of the State of Alaska ordered him to stop, as he was not licensed for trading in Alaska.
