SEC v. James A. Torchia and Credit Nation Capital (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Judgment entered

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The SEC's November 2015 emergency case over the Credit Nation promissory-note business run by James Torchia produced a final judgment filed on 3 January 2025 in the Northern District of Georgia, nearly a decade later. The court ordered Torchia to pay $114,900 in disgorgement, $28,453.54 in interest and a $669,687 penalty, after the SEC's motion for remedies. The company defendants' liability was treated as satisfied by amounts collected in the receivership.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$670k

Disgorgement

$115k

Prejudgment interest

$28.5k

Total relief

$813k

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 alleges that since 2009 Credit Nation Capital raised tens of millions of dollars by selling notes described as 100 percent asset backed, though it has lost money every year since at least 2011 and is insolvent, with returns paid from new investor money. The November 20 order bars new note sales and general solicitation and restricts transfers of assets, pending a hearing on January 7, 2016.

The consent order is interim relief, not a final settlement, and the allegations are unproven. The record described the status as settled and the lead name as ending "et al."

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.

The court had earlier entered an injunction against Torchia and left remedies open, and it decided them on the SEC's motion for remedies, which Torchia opposed. The final judgment of 3 January 2025 enjoins him from violating Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and Section 17(a), with specific limits on statements about rates of return and finances in selling securities tied to sub-prime auto loans or life settlements, and holds him jointly and severally liable with the Credit Nation companies for disgorgement of $114,900 plus prejudgment interest of $28,453.54, with the entities' share deemed satisfied by receivership collections. It adds a civil penalty of $669,687 against Torchia alone. The order is a court determination of remedies, not a settlement. The SEC's later action against his partner Marc Celello is a separate case.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

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. 2015-12-01 Litigation release published
2. 2025-01-03 Final judgment entered against Torchia and the Credit Nation entities (N.D. Ga.)

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
• Final judgment as to defendants (3 Jan 2025)
• SEC litigation release 23962 (notes the earlier injunction against Torchia)

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.