SEC v. Mark D. Hanf and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan (ponzi schemes, 2026)

Settled

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In September 2026 the SEC announced a settlement with Mark D. Hanf and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan. The complaint alleges that Hanf and Phan raised more than $80 million from about 190 investors in two private funds and regularly used new capital for Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors, with Hanf taking over $7 million. Both consented to judgments subject to court approval and face criminal charges in a parallel case.

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 4, 2026 as release LR-26627. The complaint alleges that Hanf and Phan raised more than $80 million from about 190 investors in two private funds and regularly used new capital for Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors, with Hanf taking over $7 million. Both consented to judgments subject to court approval and face criminal charges in a parallel case.

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.

A parallel criminal proceeding is referenced. Civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

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. 2026-09-04 Litigation release published

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

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.