SEC v. Yasuna Murakami and Avi Chiat (ponzi schemes, 2017)

Settled

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In May 2017 the SEC charged Massachusetts hedge fund manager Yasuna Murakami, partner Avi Chiat and their two advisory firms with fraud, alleging misappropriation of over $8 million and about $1.3 million in Ponzi-like payments. Murakami and the firms settled in August 2018, and Chiat, the last defendant, settled with a judgment on June 21, 2019. Murakami was separately sentenced to six years in prison.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$185k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$185k

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 SEC alleged that Murakami misappropriated more than $8 million of investor money for business and personal expenses and made about $1.3 million in Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors as supposed gains, while Chiat helped raise money using fabricated account statements.

According to the SEC, Murakami pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced on May 3, 2018 to six years in prison and restitution of $10,520,634. On August 6, 2018 the court entered a settled final judgment against Murakami and his two advisory entities for more than $7.9 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution order. On June 21, 2019 the court entered a final judgment against Chiat, who settled for $345,158 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and a $184,767 civil penalty, plus an injunction. The SEC called him the last remaining defendant. Only the penalty is recorded in the money fields because the releases give the disgorgement and interest as combined or approximate figures. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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. 2017-05-22 Litigation release published
2. 2018-05-03 Murakami sentenced to six years in prison in the parallel criminal case
3. 2018-08-06 Court enters settled judgment against Murakami and his advisory entities
4. 2019-06-21 Court enters final judgment against Chiat, the last defendant

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, Murakami sentence (LR-24135)
• SEC litigation release, Murakami judgment (LR-24226)
• SEC litigation release, Chiat judgment (LR-24510)

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 3 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.