SEC v. Jose D. Rocha (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Settled

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In August 2023 the SEC announced a settlement with Jose D. Rocha. The complaint alleges a Ponzi scheme in which Rocha took about $1.2 million from 13 investors in the Cape Verdean community with promised returns of 12% per month, traded little, gambled the rest and paid earlier investors from later money. He consented to an injunction with money relief to be set by the court and pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case.

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

—

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on August 3, 2023 as release LR-25800. The complaint alleges a Ponzi scheme in which Rocha took about $1.2 million from 13 investors in the Cape Verdean community with promised returns of 12% per month, traded little, gambled the rest and paid earlier investors from later money. He consented to an injunction with money relief to be set by the court and pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case.

This library tags the matter as a Ponzi scheme because the document describes returns to earlier investors paid from later investors' money, as alleged or found. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

A parallel criminal proceeding is referenced. Civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

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. 2023-08-03 Litigation release published

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

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.