Lancaster County businessman charged in $770 million investment fraud scheme

PHILADELPHIA - Lancaster County businessman Darryl F. Heller was arrested this morning for an alleged 770 million dollar investor fraud scheme.

What we know:

The United States Attorney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania held a press conference Wednesday highlighting the charges against Daryl F. Heller, 55, of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Heller was arrested and charged by indictment with one count of securities fraud and four counts of wire fraud, arising from a fraudulent investment scheme that resulted in significant investor losses of approximately $402 million.

The indictment alleges the scheme impacted around 2700 people across the country but mainly in Lancaster County. 

Authorities believe Heller used ATM’s as a potential investment tool. 

According to a recent Reuters article about the indictment, it says Heller falsely promised investors they would receive 25 percent returns based on the revenue generated by the ATMs. In many cases the machines either don’t exist, were old, broken down, or stored in warehouses. 

"The scheme itself involved automatic teller machines and the promise of revenue based on investors into those ATM’s and revenue. The indictment alleges that instead of a legitimate scheme new investor money was used to pay old investor money," says David Metcalf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of PA. 

If convicted, Heller faces a maximum possible sentence of 100 years’ imprisonment.

Dig deeper:

According to the indictment, Heller controlled and was the majority owner of several companies based in Lancaster, including Paramount Management Group, LLC ("Paramount"), which purchased, installed, operated, maintained, and processed transactions for ATMs in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and throughout the country.

Officials say Heller also controlled and was the majority owner of Heller Capital Group LLC ("HCG") and Prestige Investment Group, LLC ("Prestige"), 

Prestige was the majority owner of four companies, collectively, the "Prestige Management Companies." The Prestige Management Companies, in turn, managed the operations of more than two dozen companies, collectively, the "Prestige ATM Funds" and the "WF Velocity ATM Funds."

The indictment alleges that, from about January 2017 to December 2024, Heller solicited, and caused others to solicit, approximately $770 million from investors in the Prestige ATM Funds and WF Velocity ATM Funds investors.

The indictment further alleges that a substantial amount of the funds obtained from the Prestige and WF Velocity ATM Fund investors was not used by Paramount to purchase ATMs as promised, but used instead to pay the monthly payments owed to earlier investors in the Prestige and WF Velocity ATM Funds, other Paramount investors, Heller’s own personal expenses, and business debts incurred by Paramount and other companies that the defendant owned and controlled. 

The indictment also says that a substantial amount of the ATMs that were purportedly purchased by Paramount on behalf of the Prestige and WF Velocity ATM Fund investors either did not exist or were not in operation and, thus, were not capable of generating any revenues.

According to the indictment, to carry out and conceal the scheme, Heller created false and fraudulent records, which grossly misrepresented the number of ATMs in Paramount’s network and grossly overstated the revenues being generated by those ATMs. 

In or about April 2024, Heller caused Paramount to stop making monthly payments to investors after the Prestige and WF Velocity ATM Funds stopped providing substantial amounts of new investor money to Paramount. Investors have not received any payments since April 2024, despite Heller’s promises from April 2024 to December 2024 to make payments to and buyout the investors.

Paramount went out of business in or about December 2024, and investors in the Prestige and WF Velocity ATM Funds have unpaid principal amounts totaling approximately $402 million.

What they're saying:

"The magnitude of the offense alleged by this indictment is enormous," said U.S. Attorney Metcalf. "Daryl Heller allegedly piled lie upon lie, in order to bilk thousands of victims of their hard-earned money. This case is a prime example of the diligent and detailed work done by FBI Philadelphia’s white-collar crime branch, and the economic crimes section in our office."

"Complex financial fraud cases like this demand close coordination, because no single agency can see the entire picture alone," said Wayne A. Jacobs, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Field Office. "Together, we brought the combined resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement—pairing the FBI’s investigative reach, the SEC’s regulatory expertise, and the insights of our local partners on the ground. That collective effort, strengthened by persistence and information-sharing, allowed us to peel back the layers of deception and uncover the full scope of this alleged scheme."