SEC v. Michael J. French, MJF Holdings, LLC and MJF Capital, LLC (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Judgment entered

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In April 2023 the SEC charged Michael French and his MJF companies with selling more than $20 million of promissory notes in a lending program it called a sham. On April 30, 2024 the court entered a final judgment ordering $12,446,711 of disgorgement and $2,304,279 of interest jointly, and a $6,200,000 penalty against French.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$6.2m

Disgorgement

$12.4m

Prejudgment interest

$2.3m

Total relief

$21m

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 April 4, 2023 as release LR-25688. The complaint alleges that French sold over $20 million of 12% promissory notes to more than 400 investors through a sham lending program and used the money to repay earlier investors and fund his lifestyle.

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.

On April 30, 2024 the Northern District of Georgia entered a final judgment against French, MJF Holdings and MJF Capital. It permanently enjoins them from violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5. It makes the defendants jointly and severally liable for disgorgement of $12,446,711 plus prejudgment interest of $2,304,279, a total of $14,750,990, with that obligation offset by amounts collected from seven relief defendant entities. French personally is ordered to pay a $6,200,000 civil penalty. The judgment recites that the defendants consented to jurisdiction and venue; the document I read does not say they consented to the judgment itself, so it is recorded as a court judgment rather than a settlement.

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. 2023-04-04 Litigation release published
2. 2024-04-30 Final judgment entered (N.D. Ga.): injunction, disgorgement, interest, penalty against French

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 Michael J. French, MJF Holdings and MJF Capital

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.