Attorneys: Top Execs in Heller’s Business Empire Aided Fraud, Must Be Held Accountable; Amid Heller Bankruptcy Proceedings, New Legal Recourse Available to 2,700 Investors.
LANCASTER, PA – AUGUST 28, 2025 – Investors filed a class action lawsuit against the business associates of Daryl Heller, who owned a series of ATM-based investment products called the “Prestige Funds,” a corresponding ATM management company called “Paramount Management Group, LLC” (“Paramount”), and other companies that were used to carry out an alleged $700 million Ponzi scheme.
The investors’ class action lawsuit was filed against Jerry Hostetter, Mir Jafer Ali Joffrey (a/k/a “Buck Joffrey”), Randall Leaman, and David Zook in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The investors are represented by Daniel Centner and Jason Kane of the law firm Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise (Peiffer Wolf), Scott L. Silver, Peter Spett and Ryan Schwamm of Silver Law Group, and Nico Banks of Banks Law Office.
Heller and his associates used their businesses to raise more than $700 million from 2,700 investors across the country, spanning diverse locales from rural Pennsylvania to the Pacific Northwest. According to the investors’ complaint, despite purporting to manage a portfolio of approximately 38,000 ATMs, the Prestige Funds actually owned fewer than 10,000 ATMs, many of which were sitting idle in warehouses. Lacking meaningful cash flow from operations, the Prestige Funds relied on a constant influx of investor money to stay afloat to fund Ponzi payments to existing investors.
Ultimately, the Prestige Funds and Paramount ceased making monthly payments to investors. Investors who have not received their promised monthly distributions since April 2024 are believed to have lost all of their principal investments. In June, LNP ranked the collapse of Paramount as the second-largest business scandal in Lancaster County history.
Heller’s home was raided by FBI agents in December 2024, and he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February 2025, estimating his liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. In March the bankruptcy court ordered an independent examiner to investigate and report on “allegations of fraud, dishonesty, incompetence, misconduct, mismanagement, or irregularity.” The examiner’s August 2025 report concluded that all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme were present in Heller’s business operations.
Prestige Funds’ and Paramount’s sham business relationship has devolved into contentious litigation in the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that resulted in Prestige Funds obtaining a consent judgment against Paramount for over $138 million.
According to the new lawsuit, Prestige Funds’ Executive Officers Hostetter, Joffrey, and Zook (who previously was implicated in a separate Ponzi scheme in Texas), were heavily involved in soliciting investments in Prestige Funds. It is alleged that they had knowledge of and substantially assisted in the fraud—and were rewarded handsomely for their efforts. The lawsuit alleges that each of these individuals earned hundreds of thousands, and in some instances millions, of dollars as a result of their involvement with Prestige Funds.
According to the lawsuit, Leaman assisted Heller in moving money around to cover mounting shortfalls and would not refute that Paramount was a Ponzi scheme while under oath. In 2024, it is alleged that Leaman assisted Heller in selling the ATMs in Prestige Funds’ portfolio for scrap metal to cover its ballooning obligations to Prestige Funds.
The lawsuit further alleges that Prestige Funds and Paramount were riddled with conflicts of interest stemming from common ownership and control by Hostetter, Joffrey, Leaman and Zook, who along with Heller grossly mismanaged Prestige Funds and misappropriated investor monies for themselves.
Pavan Appannagari, a New Jersey-based Prestige Funds investor, said: “Dealing with the painful financial losses and then watching the bad guys try to pass the blame has really taken an emotional toll on my family and me. It’s obviously impossible for one person alone to perpetrate such an elaborate Ponzi scheme, and we’re proud to fight to hold the other bad actors accountable.”
Daniel Centner, partner at Peiffer Wolf, said: “Between what may be a shell game that Daryl Heller is playing in his bankruptcy proceedings, and the lawsuits his business partners are filing against him to escape their own accountability, there has been uncertainty as to how the victims can actually recoup their losses. This lawsuit aims to provide the relief that these investors have been waiting for.”
Scott L. Silver, managing partner of Silver Law Group, said: “Unlike some of the other lawsuits related to this alleged Ponzi scheme, the class action we are filing is about getting justice for the real victims. This is one of the biggest investment scandals to hit this part of the country, and we are eager to help anyone who was affected.”
The new lawsuit follows a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proof of claim against Heller filed in federal bankruptcy court in New Jersey on August 8, 2025. In March 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filed a proof of claim against him for $19 million.
###
DOWNLOAD THE PRESS RELEASE HERE
###
MEDIA CONTACT:
Max Karlin at (703) 276-3255 or [email protected].
Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise is a national law firm with offices in New York, New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Youngstown, St. Louis and Detroit. Visit https://brokerwatch.com/ for more information.
Silver Law Group is a national securities and investment fraud law firm. Our partners routinely handle class actions and other cases involving Ponzi schemes, investment fraud and financial advisor misconduct. Learn more about us at securitiesfraudattorneys.com.
Banks Law Office focuses on representing retail investors in litigation. It is located in Portland, Oregon. Learn more about it at https://www.bankslawoffice.com.
