SEC v. Avi Chiat (2019)

Judgment entered

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In June 2019 the SEC announced a final judgment in Boston against Avi Chiat, the last remaining defendant in the MC2 Capital hedge fund fraud, for helping Yasuna Murakami raise money with fabricated statements that hid trading losses. Chiat settled for $345,158 of disgorgement and interest combined and a $184,767 penalty.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-24510
Date filed	2019-06-24
Date resolved	2019-06-24
Status	judgment
Criminal parallel	Yes: sentenced (Murakami, Chiat's co-defendant (sentenced to six years in prison; no criminal case against Chiat is stated)), U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, 2018-05-03
Defendants	Avi Chiat (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Advisers Act s.206 ; Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Securities Act s.17(a) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $185k
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: $185k
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 judgment of June 21, 2019 on June 24, 2019 (LR-24510); the case is 1:17-CV-10928. The SEC alleged Murakami misappropriated investor money and made about $1.3 million of Ponzi-like payments; Chiat is charged with the false statements and with aiding the advisers' violations. He is enjoined from violating the charged provisions and from participating in securities transactions for others.

The record showed $345,158 as both disgorgement and interest, when it is a combined figure, and omitted the $184,767 penalty. The Ponzi tag is removed because the release describes a hedge fund fraud hiding trading losses.

Timeline

2019-06-24 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 3 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.

Date filed	Agency	Record	Status
2017-05-22	SEC	SEC v. Yasuna Murakami and Avi Chiat (ponzi schemes, 2017)	Settled
2018-08-06	SEC	SEC v. Murakami, et al. (2018)	Judgment entered
2019-06-24	SEC	SEC v. Avi Chiat (2019)(this record)	Judgment entered

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.