The Wellington District Court has determined this afternoon that 63-year-old financial advisor David Ross won’t be sentenced for running a ponzi scheme that affected over a thousand people, as he did not mean to break the law, and only intended to “take everyone’s money.”
Despite pleading guilty to serious charges of account manipulation brought against him by the Financial Markets Authority and Serious Fraud Office, the court found that Ross only intended to “deliberately misrepresent numerous details about investors in his company with intention of securing investments on false premises, effectively stealing money from clients who unknowingly funded his hedonistic lifestyle of excess,” but at no time expressed any intention to violate New Zealand law.
It found that Ross had “not considered the legal ramifications of his actions,” and thus could not be held accountable by the legal system.
One victim of Ross, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she was “heartbroken” by the decision, and felt that the legal system was stacked against her. She believed that something like this would never happen if it “involved the Government or something.”