By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A Pennsylvania man has been charged with tricking people into investing money he claimed would be used to buy thousands of automated teller machines, causing more than $400 million of investor losses, U.S. authorities said on Wednesday.

Daryl Heller, 55, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with one count of securities fraud and four counts of wire fraud. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges.

Authorities said Heller falsely promised investors in his Prestige and WF Velocity funds they would receive 25% returns based on revenue generated by ATMs purchased by his company Paramount Management Group.

According to court papers, many of the machines didn’t exist, or were old, broken-down a

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