SEC v. Henry J. Wieniewitz, III, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2019)

Settled

✓ 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-henry-j-wieniewitz-iii-et-al-ponzi-schemes-2019) by email

In July 2019 the SEC charged Tennessee seller Henry Wieniewitz and his company with unregistered offers and sales of Woodbridge and 1 Global securities to more than 630 retail investors. The SEC's release says both settled liability and agreed to injunctions, with the court to set disgorgement, interest and penalties later, and a later SEC release in August 2019 says Wieniewitz had consented to a final judgment. No amounts were found.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

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 July 15, 2019 (LR-24531) in the Southern District of Florida. It alleges they earned about $500,000 on Woodbridge sales and about $3 million on 1 Global sales while unregistered, and sought injunctions, disgorgement and penalties. The same release reported a settlement as to liability.

The record originally named the defendants as "et al." and showed a $500,000 gain covering only Woodbridge commissions; the gain is now blank. The tag is retained pending the lead's decision on unregistered sellers of third-party Ponzi products.

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.

Outcome. The SEC's July 2019 release, issued with the complaint, says Wieniewitz and Wieniewitz Financial settled the charges as to liability, without admitting or denying them, and agreed to injunctions, leaving the amounts of disgorgement, interest and penalties for the court. A later SEC release (24565, 15 August 2019) states that Wieniewitz had consented to a final judgment, without giving terms. No monetary amounts or judgment date were found in the sources read, so none are recorded, and the date used is that of the first release. The charges were about unregistered sales, not about the underlying Ponzi schemes run by Woodbridge and 1 Global.

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. 2019-07-15 Litigation release published
2. 2019-08-15 SEC release states Wieniewitz has consented to a final judgment

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 24565 (mentions Wieniewitz consent judgment)

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.