SEC v. Kevin B. Merrill, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2018)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. SEC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

✓ 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 November 2018 the SEC amended its Maryland complaint to name Amanda Merrill and Lalaine Ledford as relief defendants in an alleged $345 million Ponzi-like scheme. In October 2022 the SEC announced a judgment against Lalaine Ledford providing for disgorgement of vehicles and luxury items, while its case against Kevin and Amanda Merrill was still ongoing, so this record stays at filed.

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 amendment on November 9, 2018 (LR-24346). It alleges the wives received real property, cash and luxury goods from the fraud and were unjustly enriched, and asked for disgorgement from them. No monetary figure is stated.

The record named the defendants as "Kevin B. Merrill, et al."; the two defendants and the two relief defendants are now listed.

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.

A later SEC release shows a partial outcome. In October 2022 the SEC announced final judgments against eight defendants and one relief defendant in the case. The judgment against Lalaine Ledford provides for equitable disgorgement of certain vehicles and luxury items that the SEC says were bought with proceeds of her husband's fraud. The release says litigation against Kevin Merrill and relief defendant Amanda Merrill was still ongoing, and we found no later release, so the status stays filed. Kevin Merrill pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 264 months in prison, recorded here. No money amount is stated for the relief defendants. This record and the Merrill, Ledford and Jezierski record describe the same civil case.

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. 2018-11-09 Litigation release published
2. 2022-10-18 SEC announces final judgments including one against relief defendant Lalaine Ledford; litigation against Kevin and Amanda Merrill continues

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-25561 (final judgments)

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 4 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. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.