Conman Who Posed as Beverage Entrepreneur Sentenced to more than 7 Years in Federal Prison for

[TexasTowelie]

Conman Who Posed as Beverage Entrepreneur Sentenced to more than 7 Years in Federal Prison for Running $7.5 Million Ponzi Scheme


LOS ANGELES – A Canadian national was sentenced today to 87 months in federal prison for running a $7.5 million Ponzi scheme in which he defrauded investors by posing as a successful beverage entrepreneur with close ties to well-known business executives and professional sports stars, including NBA star Stephen Curry.

Khemraj Dave Hardat, 50, a former resident of the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles who has been in federal custody since his arrest last November, was sentenced by United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer, who said Hardat was “not a misguided businessman; he was a very skillful fraudster.”

Hardat was sentenced after pleading guilty on April 22 to five counts of wire fraud. When he pleaded guilty, Hardat admitted that, from August 2014 through November 2018, he raised money from investors by falsely holding himself out as a successful investor and businessman in the performance beverage and water-bottling industries. Hardat duped his investors by falsely representing that he had a doctorate and that he maintained relationships with established business figures such as computer entrepreneur Michael Dell and the chief executive officer of PepsiCo.

Hardat falsely claimed that professional basketball star Stephen Curry would be endorsing one of his company’s products, and that PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. owed him more than $100 million as the result of purported business deals he had consummated with them.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/conman-who-posed-beverage-entrepreneur-sentenced-more-7-years-federal-prison-running-75

[Demovictory9]

1. more

Khemraj Dave Hardat and his wife Cecilia registered two of their three children at Calvary Christian School for the 2015-2016 school year. The family, which had recently moved from Florida, appeared to be well-off.

Where did Hardat’s money come from? That’s not a question one usually poses to a new parent at a school, but parents learned that he was allegedly a beverage executive. More than one family at Calvary knew he supposedly had a pending deal with PepsiCo and Dr. Pepper for his water company, 04 Worldwide Holdings, which included his triple oxygenated Calo4nia water.

Shortly after school started, Hardat performed a demonstration of his water to an eighth-grade Calvary science class. He even brought the water to a flag football game. A parent, R.S., later told Circling the News, “It didn’t taste any different.”

No one questioned Hardat’s credentials, which alleged to include a Ph.D. from Yale. No one questioned his company. The man obviously had money because he drove a Lamborghini (about $200,000) and his wife Cecilia drove a 2015 Maserati Quattroporte S Q4 (prices start at $108,700).

The family of five was living at the Ritz-Carlton Residences at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, where three-bedroom rentals go for $11,250 a month and three-bedroom condos range in price from $3.2 to $7.75 million with the following amenities: rooftop swimming pool, fitness center, spa & salon, screening room, access to Ritz Carlton Hotel Service, complimentary breakfast, 24-hour full-service concierge, housekeeping services and secure parking.

Hardat, 50, also had a suite at Staples Center. According to a July 2015 L.A. Times story (“Suite Rental Companies Make Premium Sports Experiences More Attainable”) those suites for the Kings, Lakers and Clippers start at $300,000.

According to R.S. and other school families, the Hardats invited school administrators and parents to events at Staples. There were also school/birthday parties at the Ritz Carlton.

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According to a U.S. Attorney’s office, Hardat had allegedly defrauded at least seven victims into wiring him more than $5 million. Two of them were Calvary families, and one family apparently played an essential role in Hardat’s undoing.

https://www.circlingthenews.com/pacific-palisades-residents-scammed/

[TexasTowelie]

2. Thanks.

I'm glad that the law caught up with him. Too bad for the kids because they will be running in different social circles and living a different lifestyle because of what their father stole for them.