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SEC v. Pedram Abraham Mehrian, Strategic Legacy Investment Group, Inc., and SLIG High-Interest Liquid Savings Company (ponzi schemes, 2024)

Judgment entered

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In May 2024 the SEC announced a judgment against Pedram Abraham Mehrian, Strategic Legacy Investment Group, Inc. and 1 other. On 18 April 2024 final judgments were entered against the two SLIG entities, which the SEC charged with a Ponzi-like scheme selling over $17.5 million of notes and paying at least $4.2 million of Ponzi-like returns. The recorded figures are the two entities' orders added together (penalties $1,152,314 each); the release does not report relief against Mehrian.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-26008
Date filed 2024-05-20
Date resolved 2024-05-20
Status judgment
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Pedram Abraham Mehrian (individual) ; Strategic Legacy Investment Group, Inc. (entity) ; SLIG High-Interest Liquid Savings Company (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques Ponzi schemes

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$2.3m
Disgorgement
$5.5m
Prejudgment interest
$552k
Total relief
$8.4m
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 May 20, 2024 as release LR-26008. On 18 April 2024 final judgments were entered against the two SLIG entities, which the SEC charged with a Ponzi-like scheme selling over $17.5 million of notes and paying at least $4.2 million of Ponzi-like returns. The recorded figures are the two entities' orders added together (penalties $1,152,314 each); the release does not report relief against Mehrian.

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 relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $2,304,628, disgorgement of $5,544,978, prejudgment interest of $551,845, as the release or order states it. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2024-05-20 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.

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.

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

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
SEC v. Mark D. Hanf and Hoai-Nam Chu Phan (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-09-04 Ponzi Schemes — settled
SEC v. Leor Moshe, Jacob Goldman, Isaac Odes (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-08-13 Ponzi Schemes — filed
CFTC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) CFTC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
SEC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher A. Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
SEC v. Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V. and others (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-07-24 Ponzi Schemes $449k judgment
CFTC v. Trevor L. Vernon and Argent Capital Management LLC (ponzi schemes, 2026) CFTC 2026-07-07 Ponzi Schemes — filed

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.