Frantz Simeon's Ponzi scheme against the Haitian American community in Brooklyn and Queens
Frantz Simeon used his company, First Black Enterprises, Inc., to target members of the Haitian American community in Brooklyn and Queens between February 2019 and December 2020, promising risk-free investments with 10% monthly returns. He induced over $350,000 in investments and caused over $200,000 in losses before pleading guilty to mail fraud in February 2023; he was sentenced in March 2024 to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $200,000
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Affinity fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-09
The facts, as recorded
- Between February 2019 and December 2020, Simeon falsely advertised his business experience, enticing investors with promises their investments were risk-free and would generate 10% monthly returns.
- Simeon specifically preyed on Haitian Americans residing in Brooklyn and Queens, leveraging his relationships in the community to induce over $350,000 in investments based on his false assurances.
- Simeon conducted little or no actual business or investment activity, instead using money from new investors to mail monthly interest payments to them and to earlier investors, a Ponzi-like structure designed to conceal the fraud and induce further investment.
- He misappropriated thousands of dollars of investor funds for personal benefit, including purchasing a car for his daughter and making over $60,000 in personal cash withdrawals.
- Simeon's victims, who were largely immigrants, ultimately sustained over $200,000 in losses as a result of the scheme.
- Simeon pleaded guilty to mail fraud in February 2023. On March 1, 2024, US District Judge Brian M. Cogan sentenced him to 24 months in prison and ordered him to pay over $200,000 in restitution.
- US Attorney Breon Peace said: 'Today, Frantz Simeon learned the consequences for exploiting his position of trust in the Haitian American community... This Office will aggressively prosecute perpetrators of affinity fraud schemes.' USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Daniel B. Brubaker added that Simeon 'targeted individuals from his own community for his personal financial gain.'
Why this case matters
This is the most recent and smallest-dollar case on this page, and the only one where a federal prosecutor used the term “affinity fraud” by name in an official statement, making explicit what the other two cases illustrate implicitly: a prosecutor’s office treating exploitation of community trust as its own recognised category of offence, not simply “fraud that happened to involve a particular group.”
A small, local, slow-burning scheme
Unlike the nationwide tours and seminar circuits in the other two cases on this page, Simeon’s scheme was local, run inside Brooklyn and Queens, and comparatively small in dollar terms, over $350,000 induced and just over $200,000 actually lost. It ran for roughly two years before collapsing, with Ponzi-style interest payments mailed to investors in the meantime to keep the appearance of a working investment alive.
Immigrant status as part of the exposure
The prosecution’s own description notes that Simeon’s victims were “largely immigrants.” Immigrant communities recur across the SEC’s own list of affinity fraud targets, not because any one community is uniquely credulous, but because a tight immigrant community, like a congregation, often has the same dense internal trust network a fraudster embedded in it can exploit, while members may also be less familiar with where and how to report fraud to US authorities.
The caveat
Simeon pleaded guilty and was sentenced; the facts above reflect the conduct described in the prosecution’s own announcement of that sentencing, which he admitted to through his plea, not a disputed allegation. The exact number of victims is not stated in the source for this case and is treated here as unknown rather than estimated.
Sources
- Defendant Convicted of Fraudulent Scheme That Targeted the Haitian American Community Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison. US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York. Accessed 2026-10-09. Supports: All figures and quotes in this case file: the 2019 to 2020 scheme dates, the 10% monthly return promise, the over-$350,000 induced and over-$200,000 lost, the personal spending detail, the February 2023 guilty plea to mail fraud, the March 2024 sentencing to 24 months, the restitution order, and the quotes from US Attorney Peace and USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Brubaker.