From 2019 to 2023, more than $430,000 vanished into a company that did not exist. Infinity Wealth Management, LLC (once marketed as a “licensed hedge fund management firm”) was nothing more than a name.
Its founder, Pathyam Patel, aged 25, lured at least 15 investors, many of them college students, into a carefully scripted illusion of financial legitimacy.
The result: a paper company, fake SEC seals, fabricated profits, and entire savings siphoned from small investors under the promise of “guaranteed returns.”
A Pattern of Deception
How the System Failed
- 2019–2023: Patel solicited over $430,000 from at least 15 hopeful investors through Infinity Wealth Management, LLC.
- False Credentials: Patel claimed Infinity was “licensed” by the SEC and operated as a hedge fund. Neither was true.
- Fabricated Documents: He created “Investor Contracts” featuring the official SEC seal and a self-written “Infinity Wealth Plan” boasting “licensed and highly qualified portfolio management experts.”
- Guaranteed Principal: Patel assured clients their investments were “guaranteed,” promising full repayment within weeks if requested.
- Fake Profits: He told investors they were earning 80–110% annual returns, sending falsified profit statements and text messages showing fake gains.
- Misuse of Funds: Instead of investing, Patel used client money for personal expenses, sports betting, and Ponzi-style payments to other investors.
- Bogus Fees: Patel fabricated “SEC fees,” “IRS fees,” and “Virginia State Corporation Commission fees,” collecting over $89,000 in fake charges.
- Regulatory Response: The SEC charged Patel with violations of the Securities Act, Exchange Act, and Investment Advisers Act…….. alleging a scheme of deception, misappropriation, and fraud.
The Macro Consequences
The Economic Fallout
While the dollar figure ($430,000) may pale beside Wall Street’s billion-dollar scandals, its context magnifies the harm. Patel targeted small, first-time investors, often students and young workers like the majority of people who read my articles.
For them, losing a few thousand dollars was them losing their rent money, tuition, and savings. This erosion of financial stability at the individual level accumulates into systemic distrust, especially among younger generations newly entering capital markets.
The Public Trust Crisis
Patel’s use of the SEC’s official seal was a betrayal of institutional credibility. Every fake document he distributed blurred the line between real and counterfeit regulation. The damage goes beyond his victims; it deepens a national skepticism about financial oversight, particularly when enforcement follows years after the harm is done.
The Regulatory Breakdown
Infinity Wealth Management never existed as a legal or operational entity. There were no accounts, no licenses, no employees, no assets, yet it operated unchecked for more than four years. That gap underscores how easily small-scale fraud can evade scrutiny when regulators are structured to detect large-scale misconduct.
The Human Consequence of “Low-Level” Fraud
Patel’s clients weren’t faceless account numbers with zero meaning attached to them. They were students, peers, and community members drawn in by someone they trusted. The SEC’s filing confirms that some victims paid more in fake fees than they ever “invested”. When friends and families become both investors and victims, trust in personal networks, the last line of defense for ordinary investors, collapses too.
Accountability Deferred
The SEC’s legal action demands that Patel be permanently barred from investment activity for five years, repay all ill-gotten gains, and face jury trial. Yet as with so many white-collar cases, the structure of accountability remains reactive, not preventative.
The “Infinity Wealth” fraud is a case study in how modern financial oversight fails to reach the periphery, where small investors and personal trust replace formal due diligence. The punishment may recover money, but the systemic gap that allowed a fake hedge fund to thrive for years remains unaddressed.
Until oversight expands beyond the walls of high finance, fraud will continue to masquerade as opportunity.
Click here for an SEC press release on this story: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26406
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