Metro

CEO used $4.3M from Ponzi scheme to pay mortgage: cops

The CEO of a Manhattan investment firm duped five victims out of a combined $4.3 million and used the pilfered proceeds to pay off his home mortgage and buy two luxury cars, authorities said Tuesday.

Wing Lim, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, 41, is accused of using his Wall Street Investments company to solicit funds from clients by falsely promising high rates of return between August 2012 and December 2013, according to prosecutors.

“He [Lim] said the money is all there, it just has to be located,” said defense lawyer Steven Frankel at Lim’s arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court, where Lim pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and other raps. “There were some losses in the market but the people were not defrauded.”

Lim allegedly told his clients he’d invest their money in high-yield hedge funds.

Instead, he quickly moved their cash to other brokerage accounts he controlled before withdrawing $500,000 for extravagant personal items, including a 2012 Lexus and a 2013 BMW, prosecutors said.

In reality, Lim transferred his victims’ cash almost immediately into accounts belonging to him and his relatives, prosecutors charge.

Only $1.9 million of the stolen funds have been recovered, said Assistant Attorney General Gabriel Tapalaga.

Lim, who is an illegal alien from China, was remanded.