SEC v. FX & Beyond Corporation and Steve H. Karroum (ponzi schemes, 2017)

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-fx-beyond-corporation-et-al-ponzi-schemes-2017) by email

The SEC sued FX & Beyond Corporation and Steve Karroum in February 2017 over a forex program. On September 10, 2018 the Eastern District of Virginia entered a final judgment against the company for $805,960 in disgorgement, $74,266 in interest and a $512,430 penalty; the release says Mr Karroum died in January 2018.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$512k

Disgorgement

$806k

Prejudgment interest

$74.3k

Total relief

$1.4m

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 complaint, filed February 16, 2017, alleges that from 2007 to 2014 the defendants claimed forex trading could be done without loss, then spent investor money on unrelated business costs and personal items for him and his wife as well as repayments to investors.

The Ponzi-like payments are one allegation within a forex misappropriation case. The allegations are unproven; the record showed a judgment, but this is a new filing.

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.

Outcome. The SEC's release reports that on September 10, 2018 the court granted a motion for a final judgment in default and settlement and entered a final judgment against FX & Beyond Corporation. It orders disgorgement of $805,960, prejudgment interest of $74,266 and a civil penalty of $512,430, and enjoins the company from violating the antifraud and registration provisions and from participating in securities offerings. According to the release, Steve Karroum died in January 2018, so no judgment was entered against him individually, and claims against the relief defendant Sahar Karroum were dismissed as part of the settlement. This outcome therefore covers the company. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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. 2017-02-21 Litigation release published
2. 2018-09-10 Final judgment entered against FX & Beyond Corporation

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
• SEC litigation release on the final judgment (LR-24310)

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.