Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. Executive Financial Services, Inc. (ponzi schemes, 2019)

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.

Report an error in this record (sec-executive-financial-services-inc-ponzi-schemes-2019) by email

In August 2019 the SEC sued John F. Thomas, Thomas Becker, Douglas Martin, Paul Hanson, Damian Ostertag and several affiliated companies in the District of Nevada over an alleged Ponzi-like scheme selling sports-betting-related investments. Final judgments against the five individuals were entered between November 2020 and October 2021, together ordering about $9.2 million in disgorgement, $0.46 million in interest and $8.07 million in penalties.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-24585
Date filed 2019-09-04
Date resolved 2021-10-04
Court U.S. District Court, District of Nevada
Status judgment
Criminal parallel No
Defendants John F. Thomas (individual) ; Thomas Becker (individual) ; Douglas Martin (individual) ; Paul Hanson (individual) ; Damian Ostertag (individual) ; Einstein Sports Advisory, LLC (entity) ; QSA, LLC (entity) ; Vegas Basketball Club, LLC (entity) ; Vegas Football Club, LLC (entity) ; Wellington Sports Club, LLC (entity) ; Welscorp, Inc. (entity) ; Executive Financial Services, Inc. (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques Ponzi schemes , Unregistered distributions

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$8.1m
Disgorgement
$9.2m
Prejudgment interest
$461k
Total relief
$17.7m
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

On September 4, 2019 the SEC announced a complaint filed in the District of Nevada on August 30, 2019, alleging that Thomas, Becker and several entities promised returns of 250% to 600% from sports betting but used most investor money for lifestyles, commissions and Ponzi-like payments. It charges antifraud and Securities Act Section 5(a) and 5(c) violations against Thomas, Becker and six entities, and broker-registration violations against Martin, Hanson, Ostertag and Executive Financial Services, Inc. These are allegations. The record previously named only Executive Financial Services, Inc., and showed the status as unknown.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes and unregistered distributions, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

Final judgments were entered against the five individual defendants. Hanson (November 20, 2020) was ordered to pay $281,000 in disgorgement, $14,067 in interest and a $60,000 penalty. Thomas and Becker (April 7, 2021) are jointly and severally liable for $8,053,285.75 in disgorgement plus $403,152.99 in interest and each separately owes a $4,000,000 penalty. Martin (October 4, 2021) was ordered to pay $458,000 in disgorgement, $22,927 in interest and a $5,000 penalty, and Ostertag (October 4, 2021) $414,000, $20,725 and $5,000. The money fields add the joint disgorgement and interest once and every penalty. The judgment texts read do not say whether each was by consent. The entities named in the complaint, including Executive Financial Services, Inc., Einstein Sports Advisory and the sports-club companies, were not checked, so the case may remain open as to them.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques 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. 2019-09-04 Litigation release published
  2. 2020-11-20 Final judgment against Paul Hanson
  3. 2021-04-07 Final judgments against John F. Thomas and Thomas Becker
  4. 2021-10-04 Final judgments against Douglas Martin and Damian Ostertag

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.

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

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
SEC v. William B. McHenry, Jr. and First South Investments, LLC (ponzi schemes, 2023) SEC 2023-09-26 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions — judgment
SEC v. David F. Bandimere (ponzi schemes, 2019) SEC 2019-11-22 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions $130k settled
SEC v. William M. Apostelos, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2019) SEC 2019-09-25 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions — judgment
SEC v. Jonathan H. Seigel, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2019) SEC 2019-05-21 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions — settled
SEC v. Anthony C. Zufelt (ponzi schemes, 2019) SEC 2019-04-22 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions — judgment
SEC v. Julieann Palmer Martin (ponzi schemes, 2015) SEC 2015-03-09 Ponzi Schemes , Unregistered Distributions $1.1m judgment

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.