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SEC v. Damon Elliott, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2022)

Judgment entered

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 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.

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In April 2022 the SEC announced final judgments in Massachusetts in its Ponzi scheme case against Damon Elliott and Piptastic Limited, ordering Elliott to pay $6,445,837 including $6,348,314 of disgorgement and interest and a $97,523 penalty, and Piptastic a $5,289,028 penalty. Relief defendants were ordered to pay millions more.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-25369
Date filed 2022-04-15
Date resolved 2022-04-15
Status judgment
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Damon Elliott (individual) ; Piptastic Limited (entity) ; Sharon Elliott (individual) ; Paul Rose (individual) ; DSE Retail Limited (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged 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 Ponzi schemes

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$5.4m
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
$5.4m
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 on April 15, 2022 (LR-25369), concluding the case filed in May 2020. Piptastic owes $5,937,335 of disgorgement and interest jointly with Elliott; Sharon Elliott owes $1,310,552 and Paul Rose $1,377,852; DSE Retail Limited owes $2,650,839 jointly with Piptastic. The penalty field adds the two penalties.

The record showed $6,348,314, a combined disgorgement and interest figure, as interest and carried no penalty; the penalties are now entered and the combined figure blanked.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2022-04-15 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.

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.

Date filed Agency Record Status
2020-05-06 SEC SEC v. Damon Elliott, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2020) Judgment entered
2022-04-15 SEC SEC v. Damon Elliott, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2022)(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.

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

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
SEC v. Mark D. Hanf and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-09-04 Ponzi Schemes — settled
SEC v. Leor Moshe, Jacob Goldman, Isaac Odes (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-08-13 Ponzi Schemes — filed
CFTC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) CFTC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
SEC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher A. Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
SEC v. Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V. and others (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-07-24 Ponzi Schemes $449k judgment
CFTC v. Trevor L. Vernon and Argent Capital Management LLC (ponzi schemes, 2026) CFTC 2026-07-07 Ponzi Schemes — filed

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.