Tampa investment adviser sentenced for fraud

TAMPA — Gignesh Movalia, a registered investment adviser in Tampa, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for leading a $9 million investment fraud scheme.

Movalia, 40, founded OM Global Investment Fund LLC in 2009, which he used to defraud investors. In 2011 and 2012, he raised more than $9 million from 130 investors by falsely claiming he had access to pre-IPO shares of Facebook stock.

Instead of using the money to buy shares, Movalia admitted that he invested the funds into other securities. OM Global Fund lost about $9 million before it went into receivership, with $6 million of those losses coming from the fraud scheme.