A Manhattan money manager who claimed he was a cousin to a Belgian prince ran a $6 million Ponzi scheme that he used to pay for his lavish Hamptons home and divorce, the SEC charged yesterday.
Beginning in October 2008, Guy Albert de Chimay, 47, promised his victims 12 percent returns from “bridge loans” that he claimed had been a windfall for his friends in the Chimay royal family.
He and his 23-year-old firm, Chimay Capital, of 888 Seventh Ave., also boasted of having $200 million under management.
But it was a “classic Ponzi scheme,” an SEC complaint filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday charged.
There were no loans and no $200 million. When investors began to demand their money back, Chimay paid them with cash from other victims.
Last December, Chimay tried to get a multimillion-dollar loan from Wachovia by claiming he was backed by $14 million in a Bermuda bank account.
But the balance was “actually zero,” the feds said.
The suspect, who lives in Midtown, was arrested yesterday morning in Wrightsville Beach, N.C.