2021
Mejdi Mahmoud Abousaoui was sentenced to serve 25 years in state prison after pleading guilty to first-degree securities fraud. Abousaoui paid $210,454.70 in up-front restitution and was ordered to pay the remaining balance of $2,803,271.56 of outstanding restitution.
Abousaoui was prosecuted in the 458th District Court for Fort Bend County, Texas. He was charged with fraudulently selling securities in a scheme that ran from early 2015 through mid-2018 that involved at least 70 victims and more than $4 million. According to the indictment, Abousaoui misrepresented his use of money tendered by the victims – falsely claiming he would use their money to purchase equities, bonds, mutual funds and other products that would generate a return of 5 percent per month. He also used new investor funds to pay for personal expenses and distributions to prior investors. This type of scheme is often referred to as a Ponzi scheme, where profits are not generated by underlying business activities and instead fraudulently derived from new investors’ funds.
The Texas State Securities Board acknowledges the work of the Fort Bend District Attorney’s Office in securing the conviction. The Enforcement Division investigated the case, and enforcement attorneys Kelsey Heaton and Matthew Leslie were appointed as special prosecutors and assisted in the successful prosecution of the defendant.