Apparently the law degrees earned by Omar Ali Rizvi mean very little as the Irvine resident was penalized for making ridiculous claims about ludicrous returns and failed to even register the companies he claimed were raking in the dough.

In addition to this latest display of stupid bad behavior, in the last ten years, Rizvi has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and disbarred for lack of character.

A federal judge in Orange County ruled this week that the forty-five year-old man owes a $2.6 million penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for operating a scam that relied on lies boosting returns “in excess of 1000%” for investors.

1000%? Really? I mean there is an argument for Rizvi in that anyone who buys into that deserves what they get, however…

U.S. District Court Judge James Selna ordered Rizvi to pay the fine. He agreed with the Security and Exchange’s case view and push for a summary judgement.

Bellwether Venture Capital Fund I, Inc. of Irvine and Strategy Partners, LLC of Newport Beach were launched after Rizvi was disbarred and a federal agency claims that Rizvi never registered the entities.

Rizvi issued press releases claiming wild success for investors, but in reality his Bellwether operations “never realized any gains on its holdings and never paid any returns to its investors,” according the SEC complaint.

Selna also permanently barred him from engaging in future investment businesses.
County records show that Rizvi has lived or operated businesses in Irvine, Corona del Mar, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Manhattan Beach, Santa Ana and San Francisco.