The banking commissioner of Connecticut ordered a couple to pay back investors $843,000 plus interest after an investigation found they consistently spent invested money on personal expenses, including rent, spa services, groceries, plastic surgery, ATM withdrawals and purchases from department and jewelry stores.
The two people in charge of the two companies at the heart of the controversy, Valuex Research and Valuex Fintech, are Ulrika Johansson and Peter Johansson, who according to court records are married. The Valuex companies, according to what the Johanssons told investors, were meant to patent a stock investing research tool developed in Sweden then market that tool across Europe.
Over time, multiple Valuex Research investors soured, according to court documents. One such investor was Eric Ross, who has forensic accounting experience. In May 2022, Ross started trying to get Valuex Research to pay him back. When those attempts failed, he began trying to involuntarily commit Valuex Research to bankruptcy in federal court in December 2022.
Nine months later, in September 2023, the bankruptcy court ruled against Ross, finding that his petition for involuntary bankruptcy was a litigation tactic that he used as "retribution" and "to address his anger, embarrassment and frustration," according to the bankruptcy court. A federal appellate court upheld the ruling.
However, Ross' fortunes recently turned when the banking commissioner ordered the Johanssons to pay Ross and the other investors back, with interest. Among other findings, the commissioner said Ulrika Johansson had taken news of the favorable bankruptcy court ruling back to Swedish investors and "misled" them to believe the ruling could yield millions of dollars in damages that she could use to repay the investors.
In reality, Valuex Research filed a motion for damages seeking approximately $243,000, representing attorney's fees and costs. That motion is still pending.
Valuex Research attracted investors on investing tech promises
According to court records, Ulrika Johansson formed Valuex Research in May 2016 and named herself CEO and managing member. Between 2017 and approximately December 2021, Valuex Research raised approximately $471,000 from at least 37 investors through convertible promissory notes, or CPNs.
The federal bankruptcy court for Delaware found that the business purpose of Valuex Research was to "research, market and license the VX1000 in the United States and Sweden," according to the court's ruling. The VX1000 is a "large cap fair value weighted index, which was developed in Sweden and first used in 2007," according to the court.
The Johanssons also told investors that the money they were raising would be used to secure a patent for "a unique stock market indexing method" that Valuex Research was developing, according to the court. Investors testified that the couple led them to believe that the company was creating some kind of stock investing research tool that banks could use to invest.
Then, in November 2021, the Johanssons formed Valuex Fintech. The business purpose of Valuex Fintech is to market the VX1000 in Europe, excluding Sweden, according to the court. One investor testified that Ulrika Johansson led her to believe her investment in Valuex Fintech would fund the development of a computer program that would show how to invest money.
Ross threatens the Johanssons with lawsuits
In December 2022, before Ross said he knew about Valuex Fintech, he emailed Ulrika Johansson, saying "there are assets which exist within this entity Valuex Research LLC although you may have fraudulently conveyed such assets not long ago. Where is the patent?"
Ulrika Johansson later testified during trial that Valuex Research had assets that included "licenses that are separate from those owned by Valuex Fintech," and that "Valuex Research has never transferred any assets or money to Valuex Fintech."
Soon after accusing Ulrika Johansson of fraud, Ross learned about the formation of Valuex Fintech. He left Ulrika Johansson a voicemail saying he planned to "treat you with the same disrespect that you are entitled to, including notification to several authorities including courts, which will in all likelihood result in some incredibly unexpected outcomes to you."
Ross then sent Ulrika Johansson an email saying he would "make a referral to federal authorities with adequate proof that you have been operating a Ponzi scheme for years."
The bankruptcy court cited these threats by Ross and failure to follow standard debt collection procedures as improper motivations for initiating bankruptcy proceedings against Valuex.
Banking commission demands repayment
After winning against Ross in bankruptcy court and again on appeal, the Johanssons appear to now be on the losing side in the legal battle.
Connecticut banking commissioner Jorge Perez issued an order March 28 indicating that Valuex and the Johanssons had violated the Connecticut Uniform Securities Act by offering and selling unregistered securities and engaging in fraud.
As a result, Perez said in the order that the Johanssons must halt any fraudulent activities and make restitution of approximately $843,000 plus interest to investors. The order also warned that the couple could owe the state fines of $100,000 each per violation.
The Department of Banking's order highlighted the personal spending the Johanssons did with invested money and misleading representations the couple made to investors and the misuse of funds for personal gain.
Besides covering personal expenses with investor money and not disclosing it to investors, the commissioner's investigation also found that the Johanssons had low bank account balances prior to several instances of soliciting investor funds. In one instance, approximately $15,000 was transferred from a bank account holding Valuex Fintech investor money to a personal account belonging to Peter Johansson, and that money went toward his personal expenses.
In another example, in an email to an investor, the Johanssons referred to a large global financial institution, Oppenheimer and Co., as the investment banker for Valuex Research.
"Although [Valuex] Research and Oppenheimer had several conversations about potentially working together on an agreement, the agreement never came to fruition, and contrary to Ulrika's representations, Oppenheimer never served as [the company's] investment banker," the commissioner's order reads.
The Johanssons have 14 days from the date of the order's issuance to respond.
