CFTC v. Leben (ponzi schemes, 2014)

Judgment entered

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In March 2014 the CFTC charged Robert S. and Amy L. Leben of Columbia, South Carolina with fraud in a commodity pool, Structured Finance Group Corporation, that it alleged they ran as a Ponzi scheme, and obtained an emergency asset freeze. In a release dated August 15, 2016 the CFTC reported a summary judgment ordering restitution of $2,551,596, disgorgement of $109,787 and a $7,654,788 penalty, plus permanent trading and registration bans. Robert Leben was separately sentenced to 40 months in prison.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$7.7m

Disgorgement

$110k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$7.8m

Alleged gain

—

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The complaint, filed under seal on March 12, 2014, alleges that from August 2008 the Lebens took in at least $3.2 million, misappropriated at least $1.77 million for personal use including their home, and paid other participants about $1 million of purported profits from participant funds. It also alleges Robert Leben guaranteed principal and 14 percent annual returns with false statements, and that both failed to register as pool operators.

Judge Wooten's March 14 order froze assets and preserved records. The record carried "South Carolina Residents Robert S." as a name.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. The CFTC's release of August 15, 2016 says Chief Judge Terry Wooten entered a summary judgment order against both Lebens. The order requires restitution of $2,551,596, disgorgement of $109,787 and a civil monetary penalty of $7,654,788, imposes permanent trading and registration bans, and enjoins further violations. It finds the Lebens misappropriated at least $2 million of pool money for personal use, which the release says went to a house, vacations and living costs. The release also reports that Robert Leben pleaded guilty on October 8, 2015 and was sentenced on April 14, 2016 to 40 months in prison with criminal restitution. The release gives the announcement date rather than the date the order was signed, so the resolved date here is the announcement date. The CFTC warns that restitution orders may not lead to recovery.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2014-03-19 CFTC release published
2. 2016-08-15 CFTC announces summary judgment order against Robert and Amy Leben

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• CFTC release
• CFTC release 7426-16 (summary judgment)

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.