SEC v. Aequitas Management, LLC, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2020)

Judgment entered

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In April 2020 the SEC announced consent judgments in Oregon against Aequitas Management and affiliates and executives Robert Jesenik, Brian Oliver and Scott Gillis for defrauding more than 1,500 investors, using money to cover losses and pay earlier investors in a Ponzi-like way. Disgorgement totals about $454 million, mostly the entities' $453 million deemed satisfied by the receivership, with penalties of $925,000.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$925k

Disgorgement

$454m

Prejudgment interest

$87.3m

Total relief

$542m

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 SEC announced the judgments of April 13, 2020 on April 24, 2020 (LR-24805). Jesenik pays $759,502 and a $625,000 penalty, Oliver $190,502, and Gillis a $300,000 penalty; interest on all is about $87.3 million. All three were barred in administrative proceedings and from serving as officers or directors, and Oliver pleaded guilty in a criminal case.

The record carried only Jesenik's $625,000 penalty and the entities' $453 million, and named the defendants as "Aequitas Management, LLC, et al."; the figures now add the respondents' amounts ($453,000,000 + $759,502 + $190,502 in disgorgement) and the executives are named. This record carries the money for the matter; the 2016 sibling record holds none.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes it as a scheme paying earlier investors with later investors' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

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. 2020-04-24 Litigation release published

Primary documents

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

• SEC litigation release

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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.