SEC v. James E. Hocker (ponzi schemes, 2018)

Judgment entered

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In June 2018 the SEC charged Pennsylvania insurance agent James Hocker with a Ponzi scheme aimed at retail investors. On 31 May 2019 the Middle District of Pennsylvania entered a final judgment enjoining him and ordering $1,495,782 in disgorgement, deemed satisfied by criminal restitution, after he pleaded guilty and received a 17-year sentence.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$1.5m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.5m

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 June 21, 2018 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleges Hocker, who first sold his clients insurance, invested none of their money, spent it on personal costs such as credit card bills and paid it to other investors.

The 2018 release only thanked the US Attorney's Office for assistance and did not describe the criminal case, which is covered below.

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.

A later SEC litigation release shows the outcome. On 31 May 2019 the court entered a final judgment against Hocker that permanently enjoins him from antifraud violations and orders disgorgement of $1,495,782, a sum the SEC says is deemed satisfied by the restitution ordered in his criminal case. In that case he pleaded guilty and on 26 April 2019 was sentenced to 17 years in prison, recorded here as 204 months, with restitution of the same amount. The release does not say whether he consented to the civil judgment, and it states no penalty or prejudgment interest.

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. 2018-06-21 Litigation release published
2. 2019-05-31 Final judgment entered: injunction and $1,495,782 disgorgement, deemed satisfied by criminal restitution

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 LR-24487 (final 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.

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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.