SEC v. John J. Woods, Livingston Group Asset Management Company d/b/a Southport Capital, and Horizon Private Equity, III, LLC (ponzi schemes, 2021)

Settled

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In August 2021 the SEC filed an emergency action against Georgia adviser John Woods, Southport Capital and the Horizon Private Equity III fund over an alleged $110 million Ponzi scheme. A Commission order states that a consent judgment permanently enjoining Woods was entered on March 8, 2023, and the Commission barred him from the securities industry.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 case on August 25, 2021 (LR-25181) in the Northern District of Georgia, filed August 20.

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 Commission's August 1, 2023 settled order (File No. 3-21540) states that on March 8, 2023 the Northern District of Georgia entered a judgment by consent against Woods, permanently enjoining him from violating Section 17(a), Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and Advisers Act Sections 206(1) and 206(2). It bars him from association with any broker, dealer, investment adviser and similar firms. The order does not state any disgorgement or penalty, so none is recorded. The outcomes for Southport Capital and Horizon Private Equity III were not checked, so this covers Woods only.

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. 2021-08-25 Litigation release published
2. 2023-03-08 Consent judgment entered against Woods (N.D. Ga.), as described in the Commission order of Aug. 1, 2023

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 Order, Exchange Act Release 98031 (Aug. 1, 2023)

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.