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Vladimir Artamonov, a 2003 Harvard Business School alumnus, was indicted in federal court for allegedly defrauding investors — including several of his own HBS classmates — out of more than $4 million in a “Ponzi-like fashion,” according to documents unsealed Thursday.

Prosecutors charged Artamonov with securities fraud, wire fraud, and investment adviser fraud for allegedly soliciting investors through his network of HBS alumni.

Law enforcement arrested Artamonov on Thursday, and he appeared before a federal judge in Maryland. He was released on a $300,000 bond with the condition that he could not contact investors or potential witnesses.

Securities fraud and wire fraud each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while investment adviser fraud carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Philip K. Cohen, Artamonov’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Cohen serves as Artamonov’s “guardian ad litem,” according to Reuters. The guardian is a court-appointed representative for defendants who cannot make their own legal decisions.

Of the seven investors named in the civil lawsuit against Artamonov, three — Arndt W. Nicklisch, Rahul S. Mehendale, and Mei Shibata ’95 — are HBS alumni.

An HBS spokesperson declined to comment on the indictment. The three HBS alumni named in the lawsuit against Artamonov did not respond to a request for comment.

Artamonov allegedly defrauded 29 investors between September 2021 to February 2024, according to a filing by New York Attorney General Letitia A. James.

Artamonov allegedly used his status as an HBS alum to recruit wealthy investors for his personal fund which he called “Project Information Arbitrage.”

“Vladimir Artamonov used his alumnus status from Harvard Business School to prey on his classmates and others while seeming legitimate and dependable,” James wrote in a 2024 press release.

Nicklisch invested $100,000 into Artamonov’s fund through two installments in September 2022. By the end of November 2022, Artamonov had lost nearly all of it, leaving just $5,123.70 in his Charles Schwab account, according to the 2024 lawsuit.

Mehendale and Shibata, who graduated from HBS in 2003, first met Artamonov at social gatherings. They then invested $50,000 and $30,000, respectively, into his fund in early 2023, per the lawsuit.

Artamonov said that he could provide investors with high returns with minimal risk by predicting Berkshire Hathaway’s investments before they were publicly disclosed. Instead, prosecutors allege, he kept investors’ money in his personal accounts and diverted investor funds toward “improper uses.”

Rather than follow his proposed strategy, Artamonov invested in speculative short-term options in public companies that mostly did not overlap with Berkshire’s investments. He allegedly concealed losses from investors by operating a Ponzi-like scheme by using funds from new investors to pay previous investors. Overall, he returned a minimum of $431,200 to at least seven investors, according to prosecutors.

Artamonov also used investor funds for his personal expenses, according to the lawsuit. In May 2022, he paid $1,977.09 for a vacation rental on Airbnb using his Charles Schwab account. In December 2022, he allegedly charged a $323.94 bill at the restaurant Quality Eats, made a $247.28 purchase on Amazon, and spent $304.77 at a grocery store.

One of Artamonov’s earliest investors lost $100,000 between October and December 2021 and died by suicide in February 2022, according to the investor’s brother, per the lawsuit. Though Artamonov was notified about the death two weeks later, he continued recruiting investors and operating the fund for at least two more years, the lawsuit states.

Artamonov is scheduled to make his first appearance in New York federal court on Thursday.

—Staff writer Graham W. Lee can be reached at graham.lee@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @grahamwonlee.

—Staff writer Anna Shao can be reached at anna.shao@thecrimson.com.