The Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10, 2026, charged Ernest Ossei Boateng, a 44-year-old founder from Pittstown, New Jersey, and two New Jersey-based companies he controls, Intercontinental Wealth Network LLC and I Wealth Network LP, with running an alleged $16 million Ponzi scheme. The SEC says Boateng raised the money from more than 200 inexperienced investors between at least January 2020 and at least March 2026, promising guaranteed returns and a low-risk strategy. Among those investors, according to the agency, were retirees, taxi drivers, home health care workers, students, an ailing widow with young children and at least two churches.
Who the SEC says was targeted
According to the SEC’s announcement, Boateng solicited, recommended and sold interests in a purported investment fund, primarily targeting Christians of Ghanaian heritage in New York and New Jersey. Many of them had never invested before, and some were immigrants to the United States.
The SEC’s complaint describes the fund as the “I-Fund” and says the investors included at least two churches and one prayer group. At least one of those congregations, the complaint says, planned to use the promised returns to buy or build a church building.
The complaint also alleges that when would-be investors did not have cash on hand, Boateng encouraged them to take out bank loans, use credit card advances or make early withdrawals from their retirement accounts, and promised that he would cover any resulting costs. According to the SEC, many did so.
The first calls after a bad investment. Some of the investors in this case pulled money early from retirement accounts, and the first-hour recovery plan lays out which calls come first once a pitch turns out to be a scam in The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
Guaranteed returns and “investment insurance”
The SEC alleges that Boateng told investors their money would earn guaranteed annual returns, typically ranging from 25 percent to 100 percent or more, and that earlier investors had already received those returns. He allegedly assured them that their investments were safe and without risk, and told at least some of them that their money was protected by “financial/investment insurance.”
Thomas P. Smith Jr., associate director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office, singled out that last claim. “We allege that the defendants’ investors included retirees, taxi drivers, home health care providers, students, an ailing widow with young children, and at least two churches and one prayer group,” Smith said. “The defendants’ sales pitch to victims included assuring them that their investments were safe and without risk—telling many their money was protected by so-called ‘financial, investment insurance.’ That’s as big of a red flag as we see in these types of scams.”
According to the complaint, Boateng has never been registered with the SEC in any capacity, holds no professional or FINRA licenses and has never been associated with a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. The complaint says he failed the Series 6 and Series 63 licensing exams in 2016. When SEC staff subpoenaed him for sworn testimony during the investigation, he declined to answer substantive questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Where the SEC says the money went
Rather than investing the money as promised, the SEC alleges, Boateng misappropriated more than $5.8 million for personal expenses, including the purchase, renovation and furnishing of his home. He allegedly used about $6.6 million to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors, paying old investors with new investors’ money.
To the limited extent he did invest, the complaint says, the money did not go into low-risk, fixed-return products. Instead, Boateng allegedly engaged in speculative day trading, including options trading, and lost more than $750,000.
The SEC also alleges that Boateng worked to keep investors from discovering the losses. When investors asked how their money was doing, he allegedly supplied fabricated account statements showing growth at the promised rate, and personally added the logo of an SEC-registered brokerage firm to make them look authentic. That firm had no role in creating the statements, and no accounts had been opened there in the investors’ names. When he could not pay promised returns, the complaint says, he offered shifting excuses, including a false claim that the SEC had frozen the companies’ accounts, vague administrative problems and a supposed tax-code change that would penalize withdrawals.
The case in federal court and the lessons for retirement savers
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York as case 26-cv-5605. It charges Boateng and both companies with violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and charges Boateng and Intercontinental with violating the antifraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest and civil penalties, plus conduct-based injunctions that would bar Boateng from participating in securities offerings and from acting as or associating with an investment adviser, broker or dealer. The charges are allegations; no court has found the defendants liable.
For older investors, the alleged pitch contains several warning signs regulators have flagged for years. Guaranteed returns of 25 percent or more are not available in legitimate low-risk investments. Legitimate advisers do not urge clients to borrow money or pull savings early from retirement accounts to invest with them, and there is no insurance that guarantees investment returns. Account statements should come directly from an independent custodian, not from the person selling the investment.
Before handing over money, investors and their families can check whether an adviser or firm is registered through the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure search. The complaint says Boateng was never registered with the SEC or with any state as an investment adviser or adviser representative.
When a trusted community investment stops paying
The investors in this case were recruited through faith and community ties, and many learned about the losses only after months of excuses. Anyone in a similar position needs a dated trail of statements, messages and payments before approaching regulators or a bank.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit includes the first-hour recovery plan, a fraud evidence and report log and the family code word, which help an older investor and relatives respond in order and keep a clean record of what happened.
Build that response plan with The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
