SEC v. Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V., Armando Gutierrez Rosas and others (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Judgment entered

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In September 2023 the SEC sued Aras Investment Business Group, its CEO Armando Gutierrez Rosas and four individuals over an alleged Ponzi scheme. A final judgment entered July 13, 2026 orders disgorgement with interest against all six and a $448,746 penalty against Gutierrez.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$449k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$449k

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 September 21, 2023 as release LR-25840. The complaint alleges that the Mexico-based company and its chief executive ran a Ponzi scheme and affinity fraud raising at least $15 million from more than 450 mostly Mexican-American investors, with four others charged for their roles. Four of the six consented to judgments subject to court approval, with money to be decided later; claims against the company and its chief executive are pending.

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.

The SEC reported on July 24, 2026 that the Western District of Texas entered final judgment on July 13, 2026. The four individual defendants had consented to injunctions on September 25, 2023, and the court entered a default judgment as to liability against Aras and Gutierrez on November 5, 2025. The final judgment orders disgorgement with prejudgment interest of $448,746 (Aras) and $129,614 (Gutierrez) on a joint and several basis, $1,256,372 against Maria de Lourdes Tolentino Roque, $242,080 against Diayanira Rendon Trejo, $313,985 against Efren Quiroz Gardea and $139,542 against Luis Quiroz Gardea, and a $448,746 penalty against Gutierrez.

The release combines disgorgement and interest in single figures and does not say how the Aras and Gutierrez amounts overlap, so only the penalty is stored as a number here.

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. 2023-09-21 Litigation release published
2. 2026-07-13 Final judgment entered

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 reporting the outcome

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.