Manahawkin Woman Accused of Ponzi Scheme

A Manahawkin woman is being held in the Bergen County Jail after being accused of being the architect of a Ponzi scheme that swindled investors out of $450,000.

Dunya Predovan, 57, of Jeteemale Drive was arrested Thursday by members of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Alpine (Bergen County) Police Department after a joint investigation revealed she had cheated investors out of money from 2005 to 2011, Bergen Prosecutor John Molinelli said in a release.

Molinelli said Predovan got numerous people to invest in a hedge fund she said was being handled by George Soros, the acclaimed financier and chairman of Soros Fund Management. A claim from Predovan to have worked for Soros in the 1980s was false, Molinelli said, and Soros had no knowledge of her or the supposed hedge fund.

Investors believed their deposits were being invested in the pharmaceutical business, with the promise of a large return. In fact, no investors have received any money to date, Molinelli said.

Predovan was charged with one count of theft by deception and four counts of issuing bad checks.

She was arraigned before Judge Louis Dinice of the Bergen County Central Municipal Court, and bail was set at $100,000, no 10 percent option.