Career
From 1986 to 2001, Slatkin raised approximately $593 million from about 800 wealthy investors. Using the funds from later investors, he paid one group of early investors $279M on their original $128M investment, citing investment success without actually making most of the claimed investments. He also distributed millions in fees to associates as "consultants".
He successfully sustained the scheme until 2001, when it was shut down by an investigation by the United States. Securities and Exchange Commission (Securities and Exchange Commission).
In May 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down Slatkin"s scheme by filing an enforcement action and obtaining a temporary restraining order freezing his remaining assets. On the same day as the Securities and Exchange Commission action, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants relating to Slatkin.
The civil case was brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Slatkin, Civil Action Number.
01-04823 (Civil Defense Cal). The criminal case was brought by the United States. Attorney for the Central District of California in United States. v.
Reed East. Slatkin, Czech Republic 02-313 (Civil Defense Cal). Slatkin pled guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice and on September 2, 2003, he was sentenced to fourteen years in federal prison. His Federal Bureau of Prisons registration number was 24057-112 and he was initially incarcerated at the Taft Community Correctional Institution in Taft, California.
By 2010, he had been transferred to the Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California.
In July 2013, he was released from a halfway house in Long Beach, California. On June 23, 2015, journalist Tony Ortega reported on his website that Slatkin had died from a heart attack.
Ortega said that he had confirmation of Slatkin"s death from Slatkin"s ex-wife.