SEC v. Marc A. Celello (ponzi schemes, 2017)

Settled

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In October 2017 the SEC charged Atlanta attorney Marc A. Celello with participating in the Credit Nation Capital Ponzi scheme as a partner and general counsel. A final judgment entered on his consent on November 23, 2023 permanently enjoins him from antifraud violations; the judgment text sets no money.

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 complaint, filed October 5, 2017 in the Northern District of Georgia, alleges Celello was a partner of James Torchia in Credit Nation Capital, knew it was insolvent while it sold notes promising a 9 percent return described as backed by hard assets, and helped transfer investor funds to Torchia. This is the same Credit Nation matter as the December 2015 Torchia record.

Outcome: the final judgment as to Celello, signed on November 23, 2023 by the Northern District of Georgia, records that he consented to the court's jurisdiction. It permanently enjoins him from violating Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and Section 17(a), including by making false statements to investors about offerings, their registration status, use of funds or misappropriation. The four-page judgment contains no disgorgement, penalty or bar, and we did not look for any separate later order setting remedies. It does not say whether he admitted or denied the allegations.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes, based on the conduct the regulator describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

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. 2017-10-06 Litigation release published
2. 2023-11-23 Final judgment entered against Celello on consent (N.D. Ga.)

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 Marc A. Celello (N.D. Ga., November 23, 2023)

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.