SEC v. Bernardo Mendia-Alcaraz and Toltec Capital LLC (2024)
Judgment entered
Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.
In August 2024 the SEC sued Bernardo Mendia-Alcaraz and his firm Toltec Capital over a roughly $3.3 million alleged offering fraud with Ponzi-like payments. On December 16, 2025 the court entered a default judgment with injunctions, an officer-and-director bar, $2,207,524 in disgorgement (joint), $150,866 in interest and a $2,207,524 penalty against Mendia-Alcaraz.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | LR-26085 |
| Date filed | 2024-08-28 |
| Date resolved | 2025-12-16 |
| Court | U.S. District Court, Northern District of California |
| Status | judgment |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | officer-and-director bar |
| Defendants | Bernardo Mendia-Alcaraz ; Toltec Capital LLC |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Advisers Act s.206 ; Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Securities Act s.5 |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- $2.2m
- Disgorgement
- $2.2m
- Prejudgment interest
- $151k
- Total relief
- $4.6m
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on August 28, 2024 as release LR-26085. The complaint alleges an offering fraud in which the defendants raised about $3.3 million with guarantees of capital, then used investor funds for Ponzi-like payments and personal luxuries. A conduct-based injunction and officer-and-director bar are sought.
This library does not tag the matter as a Ponzi scheme: on a source check, the document mentions Ponzi-like payments only in passing, or as part of another party's scheme, and the charges are about something else. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.
Outcome. SEC litigation release LR-26457 (January 6, 2026) reports a final judgment entered by default on December 16, 2025 against Mendia-Alcaraz, Toltec Capital and two relief defendants, Edith F. Ramirez Cano and Fondo Toltec. It enjoins the two defendants from future violations of the antifraud, registration and adviser provisions cited, restricts Mendia-Alcaraz from securities offerings other than for his own accounts, and bars him from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The defendants are jointly liable for $2,207,524 in disgorgement and $150,866 in interest (the relief defendants being liable for $554,563 and $3,654 of the disgorgement with interest of $37,899 and $249), and Mendia-Alcaraz owes a $2,207,524 penalty. The figures stored here are the main joint amounts, not added to the relief defendants' shares. A default judgment means the defendants did not contest the case; it is not a trial finding. The release mentions no criminal case.
Timeline
- 2024-08-28 Litigation release published
- 2025-12-16 Final judgment entered by default (reported in LR-26457)
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.
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.
| Date filed | Agency | Record | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-28 | SEC | SEC v. Bernardo Mendia-Alcaraz and Toltec Capital LLC (2024) | Judgment entered |
| 2026-01-06 | SEC | SEC v. Bernardo Mendia-Alcaraz and Toltec Capital LLC (ponzi schemes, 2026) | Judgment entered |