SEC v. Charles Riel III and REinvest LLC (2015)

Judgment entered

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The SEC's September 2015 case against Charles Riel III and REinvest LLC over a small investment fraud ended in a judgment filed on 27 September 2017 in the Northern District of New York. The court granted the SEC summary judgment against Riel and default judgment against REinvest, ordering $197,500 in disgorgement and $27,875.20 in interest, jointly, and a $125,000 penalty on Riel.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$125k

Disgorgement

$198k

Prejudgment interest

$27.9k

Total relief

$350k

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 September 29, 2015 in the Northern District of New York, alleges Riel used the money for a mortgage, taxes, bills, withdrawals and donations, lost part of it trading crude oil and other futures, sent two investors phony statements showing 30 percent annual returns, and made payments to one earlier investor in a Ponzi-like way.

That single payment is incidental to an alleged misappropriation case of about five investors, so the ponzi-schemes tag has been removed. The record also showed a criminal parallel that the release does not state. The allegations are unproven.

The court granted the SEC's motion for summary judgment against Riel in part and a default judgment against REinvest, and ordered them jointly and severally to disgorge $197,500 plus prejudgment interest of $27,875.20. It also ordered Riel to pay a civil monetary penalty of $125,000 and permanently enjoined both from violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. These are court findings, not a settlement; the SEC had alleged that Riel raised more than $280,000 on promises of high returns and spent it on himself. The document I read is the judgment; it does not describe any criminal case, so none is recorded.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

Timeline

1. 2015-09-30 Litigation release published
2. 2017-09-27 Judgment filed against Riel and REinvest (N.D.N.Y.)

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
• Judgment against Charles Riel III and REinvest LLC (27 Sep 2017)

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.