Atlanta-based Cheetah Fund manager charged in alleged $10M fraud scheme

53-year-old also faces civil lawsuits from investors.

He operated a business called the “Cheetah Fund.” Now he’s in federal cus- tody, accused by authorities of cheating investors out of almost $10 million before temporarily fleeing the coun- try.

Craig Murfee Allen, 53, of Atlanta was indicted this week on 26 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and securities fraud in the fed- eral trial court in Atlanta. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is due to appear before a judge Wednesday for a bond hearing.

The criminal case is not Allen’s only legal concern. Civil lawsuits have also been filed against Allen by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a group of investors who collectively put more than $7.3 million into his “Cheetah Fund,” court records show.

Allen’s court-appointed attorney in the criminal case, Natasha Perdew Silas, said she looks forward to defending him but declined further com- ment about the accusations.

Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said Allen abused his clients’ trust by allegedly stealing millions of dollars to support his lav- ish lifestyle.

Allen “deceived and falsi- fied documents to conceal his thefts to provide his investors with a false sense of financial security,” Buchanan said in a news release Thursday.

The investors who sued Allen and others allegedly tied to The Cheetah Fund LP claimed it operated as a Ponzi scheme, in which investments were used to pay other participants. They said Allen, who married the daughter of NFL legend Fran Tarkenton, often bragged he helped to manage his father- in-law’s money.

“Craig Allen purported to sell securities promising extraordinary returns, but instead diverted other peo- ple’s money, including one elderly person’s life savings, to the tune of almost $10 mil- lion to furnish an extrava- gant lavish lifestyle,” states the investors’ lawsuit, filed in the Atlanta federal court in February.

In its April 24 civil complaint, the SEC said Allen raised about $9.9 million from investors between January 2019 and January 2023. To date, he has only returned about $900,000, the agency said.

“Despite incurring heavy trading losses and thus earning little if any legitimate com- pensation, Allen received at least $2.64 million from the Cheetah Fund and its inves- tors,” the SEC said in a news release.

No attorneys for Allen are listed in court records in the civil cases.

The investors’ lawsuit also includes claims against Allen’s wife, Melissa Tarkenton Allen, and their four children, who have sought to dismiss the claims alleging they profited off the scheme. Attorneys for Allen’s wife and children said in an April 22 court fil- ing the couple are divorcing, and Allen has abandoned his family.

“Melissa and the children are struggling, as one might expect, and this spurious law- suit, based on speculation, supported by only the thin- nest of allegations, makes an already bad situation so much worse,” the dismissal motion states.

Counsel for Allen’s wife and children did not immediately respond Friday to questions about the case.

Allen used hundreds of thousands of dollars of inves- tors’ money for trips to Lon- don, Paris, Zurich and other destinations, private school tuition, children’s summer camps, personal credit card debt and college tuition and housing, his indictment states.

The SEC alleged Allen also made payments to his immediate family members totaling more than $430,000. It claimed investors’ money was also used to buy clothing and pay an interior designer.

Allen’s company C.M. Allen Capital Management Inc. was involved in the alleged investment scheme, according to the indictment and the civil lawsuits against him. The company, now dissolved, is a defendant in the investors’ lawsuit, as is its director of operations. No attorneys are listed in court records for the company or the operations director, who could not be immediately contacted.

The U.S. Department of Justice said prospective investors received documents in early 2019 claiming the Cheetah Fund achieved annual investment returns as high as 73%. The government said once clients had invested in the fund, they received fraudulent monthly account statements and tax documents showing false investment gains.

In January 2023, Allen told his investors he was entering into a rehabilitation program, but instead he temporarily fled the country, the SEC alleged. It did not explain where Allen had fled or when he returned to the United States. The SEC said Allen formed the Cheetah Fund in 1998.