SEC v. Pedro Fort Berbel and others (ponzi schemes, 2017)

Judgment entered

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In November 2017 the SEC announced an unsealed Southern District of Florida case against Pedro Fort Berbel and others over an online "ad packs" paid-to-click Ponzi scheme, in which roughly 99 percent of purported profits came from newer investors' fees. A judgment entered March 19, 2019 holds Fort Berbel liable for $7,025,000 in disgorgement, $948,191.70 in interest and $7,025,000 in penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$7m

Disgorgement

$7m

Prejudgment interest

$948k

Total relief

$15m

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 complaint, filed September 28, 2017, alleged the perpetrator took several million dollars from investor funds to buy a luxury home, vehicles and private jet charters and to fund other businesses. The release also warns investors about paid-to-click schemes. The release does not name the other defendants, so only the lead name is listed.

Outcome: a judgment entered March 19, 2019 by the Southern District of Florida, granting the SEC's motion to set remedies against Fort Berbel, finds him liable for disgorgement of $7,025,000 with prejudgment interest of $948,191.70, jointly and severally with Fort Marketing Group LLC, and for civil penalties of $7,025,000. It says relief defendant Sibades, LLC is jointly liable for $1,418,717.38 of the disgorgement. The scanned copy we read does not show what led to the motion or whether Fort Berbel consented, and does not cover the other defendants. It does not show whether anything was collected.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes, based on the conduct the regulator describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

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. 2017-11-16 Litigation release published
2. 2019-03-19 Judgment setting disgorgement, interest and penalties entered against Pedro Fort Berbel

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
• Judgment as to Pedro Fort Berbel (S.D. Fla., March 19, 2019)

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.