SEC v. Karina N. Fernandez and others (ponzi schemes, 2024)

Judgment entered

✓ 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.

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In September 2024 the SEC filed five actions against MJ Capital sales agents; this record covers Karina N. Fernandez, charged over registration violations and negligent antifraud violations for videos denying MJ Capital was a Ponzi scheme, and four others. In her case, the court entered a judgment on consent in October 2024, reopened the case, and on April 14, 2025 entered a final judgment on the SEC's motion for final default judgment; the amounts were not available to us.

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on September 26, 2024 as release LR-26130. The SEC filed five actions against MJ Capital sales agents. Fernandez is charged with registration violations and negligent antifraud violations for videos denying MJ Capital was a Ponzi scheme; the four others face registration charges only. The Ponzi scheme described is MJ Capital's, charged separately.

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.

Outcome. The court docket in SEC v. Fernandez (S.D. Fla. 0:24-cv-61774) shows a judgment on an unopposed SEC motion with Fernandez's consent on October 22, 2024, an order reopening and staying the case on October 28, 2024, an SEC motion for final judgment on March 28, 2025, and a final judgment signed on April 14, 2025 that the docket describes as granting a motion for final default judgment. The text of the judgments was not available to us, so the terms and any amounts are not stated or stored here. This outcome covers Fernandez only; the record also names Marco A. Rosas, Bryant Guayara, Erick M. Ruiz and Leonela M. Duarte, who face separate actions, and we did not check how those ended.

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. 2024-09-26 Litigation release published
2. 2024-10-22 Judgment on consent entered as to Karina N. Fernandez (later reopened)
3. 2025-04-14 Final judgment entered as to Karina N. Fernandez

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
• Docket, SEC v. Fernandez (S.D. Fla. 0:24-cv-61774), via CourtListener

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.