A former Chattanooga securities trader accused of stealing more than $30 million from investors across the country pleaded “not guilty” Monday in federal court.

Luis H. Rivas is scheduled to stand trial here on Dec. 15. Charged with 19 crimes ranging from wire and bankruptcy fraud to money laundering, he faces 255 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The 55-year-old convinced about 500 people across 27 states, authorities say, to invest large sums of cash in the foreign currencies market. He did it, they say, by flaunting his wealth and telling them he already had $50 million in the bank in order to make his “classic Ponzi scheme” look legitimate.

But as Mr. Rivas stood in court Monday with shackles around his feet and wrists, he told U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Carter he could not afford to hire a lawyer. When asked if he had any money at all Mr. Rivas replied, “None whatsoever.”

Mr. Rivas was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in May, a parallel civil proceeding against the defendant designed to try to find all his assets and eventually try to reimburse the investors who lost millions.

Grey Steed, the bankruptcy trustee who has been searching for those assets, said he spoke personally to Mr. Rivas on Monday before his court appearance.

Mr. Rivas “expressed concern” over wanting to see his creditors repaid, Mr. Steed said, adding that Mr. Rivas is willing to give a deposition in the civil proceeding as well. To date, only about $4 million in cash and other assets such as cars and real estate has been recovered, Mr. Steed has said.

Of the about 500 people who lost in excess of $31 million by investing with Mr. Rivas over the last year and a half, 300 of them were from Chattanooga. But only one of Mr. Rivas’ alleged victims appeared for his arraignment, but quickly left when the proceeding was over.

Authorities believe Mr. Rivas ran a “classic Ponzi scheme,” promising he could deliver returns as high as 96 percent, the indictment against him states. Mr. Rivas never invested the majority of the $31 million he took in from investors, authorities say, instead using the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and lure about 200 employees with promises of fat paychecks to work in his five offices across the Southeast. He paid returns to some investors, authorities claim, but with money supplied by subsequent investors, a classic aspect of a Ponzi scheme.

The FBI caught Mr. Rivas in late June in Topeka, Kan., traveling with $100,000 in cash. He has since been incarcerated in Anderson, S.C., and is facing similar charges in a separate indictment filed in federal court in Spartanburg, S.C.

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