SEC v. Matthew M. Motil (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Settled

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In October 2023 the SEC charged Matthew M. Motil and Amy Motil over an alleged promissory-note fraud. Matthew Motil consented to a final judgment on January 13, 2026 with disgorgement of $2,967,535 plus interest, treated as satisfied by criminal restitution; the source does not report on Amy Motil.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$3m

Prejudgment interest

$340k

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on October 4, 2023 as release LR-25879. The complaint alleges that Motil raised about $11 million from more than 50 investors in a Ponzi scheme using notes claimed to be secured by Ohio houses, sold the same property as collateral to many investors and paid earlier investors with new money. His wife Amy Motil is a relief defendant.

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 January 16, 2026 that the Northern District of Ohio entered a final consent judgment against Matthew Motil on January 13, 2026. It permanently enjoins him from violating Section 5, Section 17(a) and Section 10(b) with Rule 10b-5, bars him from securities dealing outside certain personal-account transactions, and orders disgorgement of $2,967,535 plus prejudgment interest of $340,396, treated as satisfied by the restitution order in United States v. Motil. The release adds that on July 18, 2025 the criminal court sentenced him to 70 months in prison and ordered $5,040,862 in restitution.

The release does not mention Amy Motil, so how the claims against her ended was not checked.

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. 2023-10-04 Litigation release published
2. 2026-01-13 Final consent judgment entered against Matthew Motil

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.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.