Forget all those super-sophisticated schemes, high-technology scams. In the case of one hedge fund manager, the Securities and Exchange Commission said they used something more suited to the 20th century than the 21st: white out.

In August 2008, Francesco Rusciano, 27, forged a statement he gave to his selling agent, the SEC alleged in a case filed in Texas federal court Thursday. Rusciano made it look as though one of his funds had assets of about $43 million, rather than the $3 million that it really contained, according to court documents. He accomplished that feat by whiting out the word “excess” in the “excess equity” field of the account, thus converting what was assets plus the maximum margin available into total assets under management.

Rusciano did it again that same month, this time forging documents to show that another fund had $64 million, when it really had less than $7 million, the SEC charged.

This wasn’t the first time that Rusciano had misrepresented his positions to make things look better than they were, according to the SEC. He worked at UBS Securities handling Brazilian bond transactions from 2003 until June 1, 2006. Rusciano voluntary resigned from UBS after the firm discovered that he had misreported and given late reports for some of his transactions. Those transactions caused false profits to appear on Rusciano’s profit and loss statements.

On the Cornell University Presidential Research Scholar’s Web site, Francesco Rusciano posted his project in 2003: an investigation into the historical price trends in Brazilian “C” bonds.

After he left UBS Rusciano set up Ponta Negra Group in 2007 in Stamford, Conn.

Emails and a phone call made by HedgeFund.net to Ponta Negra and Rusicano were not returned.

About 15 investors put $31 million into Ponta Negra, the SEC said. Among those investors was an entity associated with Stanford Capital Management, the funds-of-funds firm owned by R. Allen Stanford, which was in for $1 million. Stanford is fighting his own SEC investigation into an alleged certificates of deposit fraud.

It was the investigation into Stanford Capital Management that led the SEC to Ponta Negra, Toby Galloway, the lead trial attorney for the regulator, told HedgeFund.net.