SEC v. Guy Scott Griffithe, et al. (2020)

Judgment entered

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On November 19, 2021 the Central District of California entered final judgments on money terms against Guy Griffithe and Robert Russell, after they had agreed to a bifurcated settlement. Griffithe owes about $5.3 million and Russell about $698,000 in disgorgement, interest and penalties; the SEC said the judgments resolve the case.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$3.3m

Disgorgement

$2.4m

Prejudgment interest

$380k

Total relief

$6m

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 complaint on January 21, 2020 (LR-24722). It alleges the securities conveyed no stake in the licensed business, that Griffithe spent about $1.8 million on personal and unrelated items and put $1.7 million into Russell's accounts, and that some profit distributions were partly funded in a Ponzi-like way from other investors' money.

The Ponzi tag is removed because the release describes fictitious ownership interests, with the distributions a minor tactic. The record also ran the defendants and the relief defendant together and listed them with "Defendants,"; they are now listed separately.

Outcome. Litigation release 25272 (November 24, 2021) says the two had agreed to a split settlement under which the court would set the money. The court ordered Griffithe to pay $2,093,336 in disgorgement, $336,194 in interest and a $2,882,539 penalty, and Russell $275,153, $44,190 and $378,888. The judgments enjoin both from antifraud violations and Griffithe also from the registration provisions, and Griffithe is barred from unregistered offerings and from serving as an officer or director of a public company. The release lists the entity defendants and the relief defendant as resolved in 2021, so the litigation is complete. The fraud details remain the SEC's allegations.

Timeline

1. 2020-01-21 Litigation release published
2. 2021-11-19 Final judgments on monetary relief entered against Griffithe and Russell

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 25272 (final judgments)

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.

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.