U.S. SEC Freezes Assets Of $450M Las Vegas Ponzi Scheme Perpetrators

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday announced charges and an asset freeze against several Las Vegas-area individuals and companies allegedly behind a Ponzi scheme amounting to nearly $450 million.

Photo Insert: The SEC complaint was filed in US District Court in Las Vegas.

In a complaint filed in US District Court in Las Vegas, the SEC said attorney Matthew Beasley, as well as Jeffrey Judd and Christopher Humphries, falsely told hundreds of investors that they would earn 12.5% quarterly returns by making purportedly risk-free investments in J&J Consulting Services.

"Beasley and Judd created the company to supposedly advance funds to tort plaintiffs who had reached settlements with insurance companies. But, according to the complaint, none of the $449 million raised from investors over a five-year period was used for this purpose," the SEC said.

The case comes as SEC ramps up investigations into insider trading as well as violations of corporate disclosure rules regularly committed by big-time businessmen like Tesla’s Elon Musk, who did not reveal his purchases of Twitter shares before babbling about it on social media.

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