SEC v. Aronson, Aaron and Buonauro (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Judgment entered

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In September 2015 the SEC announced a Southern District of New York final judgment ordering Eric Aronson, Fredric Aaron and Vincent Buonauro to pay about $32.7 million in disgorgement and interest and $1.65 million in penalties over the PermaPave Ponzi scheme.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.6m

Disgorgement

$32.7m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$34.3m

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

Judge Rakoff's judgment follows an August 24, 2015 ruling. The SEC alleged that from 2006 to 2010 PermaPave and affiliates raised more than $26 million from over 140 investors through notes and "use of funds" agreements, paying earlier investors from later investors' money. The amounts are Aronson $18,248,270 and a $1,385,816 penalty, Aaron $1,822,861 and $250,000, and Buonauro $12,623,860 and $10,000.

The record had one defendant's disgorgement and one defendant's penalty. Other entity and relief defendants are named in the release but did not receive these amounts.

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.

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. 2015-09-02 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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.