SEC v. Ariel Quiros, William Stenger and Jay Peak (ponzi schemes, 2016)

Settled

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In April 2016 the SEC sued Ariel Quiros, William Stenger and the Jay Peak entities over misuse of EB-5 investor money. A consent amended final judgment against Quiros entered on May 7, 2018 orders $81.3 million in disgorgement, $2.5 million in interest and a $1 million penalty, to be satisfied by turning over assets.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1m

Disgorgement

$81.3m

Prejudgment interest

$2.5m

Total relief

$84.9m

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 alleges investors were told their money would fund one specific project, but over $200 million was used for other purposes, including about $50 million of Quiros's personal spending, such as a condominium, taxes and an unrelated ski resort. It names Q Resorts, seven limited partnerships and their general partners, with four relief defendants, and a receiver was appointed.

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.

The amended final judgment against Quiros, entered on May 7, 2018 in the Southern District of Florida on his consent without admitting or denying the allegations, orders disgorgement of $81,344,166, prejudgment interest of $2,515,798 and a civil penalty of $1,000,000 (total $84,859,964), to be satisfied by his turning over specified assets, and follows an earlier partial judgment of August 2017 that left the amounts open. The docket also shows a judgment entered on February 6, 2018 as to William Stenger, but that copy is a scanned image whose terms could not be read, so it is not described here. This outcome covers Quiros; this page has not checked the Jay Peak companies or the relief defendants. The money fields show Quiros's amounts only. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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. 2016-04-14 Litigation release published
2. 2017-08-23 Partial judgment against Quiros by consent; amounts to be set later
3. 2018-05-07 Amended final judgment against Quiros: disgorgement, interest and penalty

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
• Amended final judgment against Quiros (May 7, 2018)
• Judgment as to Stenger (Feb. 6, 2018; scanned)

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.