SEC Charges Broker Surage Perera After Stealing $4M From Client

Surage Perera (Surage Roshan Perera CRD# 4716321) is a broker who was last registered with Aegis Capital Corp. (CRD#:15007) of Melville, NY. His previous employers included Maxim Group LLC (CRD# 120708) and Stockkings Capital LLC (CRD# 164445) of New York, NY, and Caldwell International Securities (CRD#:104323) of Nassau. Of his thirteen previous employers, seven have been expelled by FINRA. He has been in the industry since 2004.

After his employment with Aegis, Perera founded Janues Capital Management in Bellerose, Queens. He was also the executive director.

In March of 2023, the SEC obtained a restraining order against Perera, and successfully requested that the court freeze his assets. Perera was also recently arrested in Queens with charges from both the SEC and the US Department of Justice, who charged him with wire fraud, money laundering and investment adviser fraud. There were 16 counts in the indictment, which also included securities fraud. Following his arrest, he went before federal court in Central Islip, Long Island.

Conducting Client Business

According to the SEC Complaint, during the four years he was registered with Aegis, Perera contracted with one investor that’s called “Jane Doe” in the indictment. In February of 2022, Perera convinced Jane Doe to invest with him with four issuers through Janues, his own company, claiming that he could purchase “large allotments” of issuers’ restricted stock at a discount.

Perera also claimed he could prevent losses through a strategy called “options straddles.” He also claimed that the client would see returns on some investments up to 9%, and potentially reaching returns of 50%, according to the SEC’s petition. From then until August of 2022, Jane Doe made the client made seven payments that ranged from $270,000 to over $1.3 million, totaling nearly $4.3 million.

While Jane Doe believed her money was being invested, the truth is that Perera was transferring most of it to his own bank accounts. Most of the funds were deposited into a brokerage account in his wife’s name that Perera had control over. Perera proceeded to lose more than $3 million of the client’s monies with “high volume, highly leveraged trading” in other securities, with more than $2.5 billion in total transactions during the period.

Client Requests Info And A Refund

During the investment period, Jane Doe requested evidence of her investments. Perera provided her with falsified documentation of non-existent transactions. She began and continued to request repayments of her investment funds. Perera always had a reason why he could not pay her, including the excuse of the recent bank failures. He claimed that one of the parties he attempted to obtain a loan from banked with the now-defunct Signature Bank. Similar to a Ponzi Scheme, Perera began paying Jane Doe with funds from other investors.

Jane Doe recently spoke with two people with specific knowledge of these kinds of investments, one of whom was Pererea’s former colleague. They told her that Perera could never get types of the discounts from the issuers that he described.

The SEC also named Perera’s wife, Nishani Alahakoon, as a relief defendant. The SEC is also seeking additional civil penalties and disgorgement.

Did You Invest With Surage Perera?

Silver Law Group represents investors in securities and investment fraud cases. Our lawyers are admitted to practice in New York and Florida and represent investors nationwide to help recover investment losses due to stockbroker misconduct. If you have any questions about how your account has been handled, call to speak with an experienced securities attorney. Most cases are handled on a contingent fee basis, meaning that you won’t owe us until we recover your money for you. Contact us today at (800) 975-4345 and let us know how we can help.