SEC v. Malcolm Segal (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Settled

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The SEC's July 2015 case against former stockbroker Malcolm Segal over a certificate-of-deposit Ponzi scheme ended in a consent final judgment filed on 20 June 2016 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. It orders $3,277,306 in disgorgement, deemed satisfied by criminal restitution. He was sentenced to 126 months in prison on 23 June 2016.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$3.3m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$3.3m

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 complaint alleges Segal told brokerage customers he could obtain higher rates on FDIC-insured CDs, bought some and secretly redeemed them early, never bought others, spent the money on a Florida condominium and vacations, paid earlier investors with later investors' money, and later forged transfer authorizations. The scheme collapsed in July 2014. Federal prosecutors announced parallel criminal charges the same day.

The allegations are unproven.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Segal consented to the final judgment, which was filed on 20 June 2016 and announced by the SEC four days later. It permanently restrains him from further breaches of Securities Act Section 17(a), Exchange Act Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, and orders disgorgement of $3,277,306, treated as satisfied by an order requiring restitution of at least that amount in his criminal case. The SEC reports that he pleaded guilty in February 2016 and was sentenced on 23 June 2016 to 126 months in prison and three years of supervised release, with over $3 million in restitution. The judgment shows no separate penalty or interest figure.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

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. 2015-07-01 Litigation release published
2. 2016-06-20 Final judgment filed by consent (E.D. Pa.)
3. 2016-06-24 SEC announces judgment and criminal sentence

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
• Final judgment as to Malcolm Segal (20 Jun 2016)
• SEC litigation release 23583 (sentencing and civil judgment)

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.