SEC v. Robert C. Morgan (ponzi schemes, 2019)

Settled

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In May 2019 the SEC filed an emergency action in Buffalo against New York developer Robert Morgan and two of his entities, alleging he diverted investor funds to pay earlier investors in a real estate scheme. On 6 November 2020 a federal court entered a consent judgment against Morgan enjoining him from the antifraud provisions, with no further monetary relief; a receiver had already returned over $63 million to investors. The SEC's release does not report the outcome for the two entities.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 announced the case on May 23, 2019 (LR-24477), filed May 22 in the Western District of New York. Investors, many using retirement accounts, were told money would improve multifamily properties. The SEC sought injunctions, disgorgement, interest and penalties.

The record originally omitted the entity defendants.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes it as a scheme paying earlier investors with later investors' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. The SEC's November 2020 release says the Western District of New York entered a final judgment on consent against Morgan on 6 November 2020, without his admitting or denying the allegations. It enjoins him from violating Section 17(a), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and, it says, includes no additional monetary relief, because Morgan liquidated assets after the complaint to fund more than $66 million collected by the receiver and distributed, or authorized to be distributed, to investors; the receiver had returned over $63 million of principal earlier in 2020. The release does not mention judgments against the two entities he controlled, so this outcome is recorded for Morgan only and the entities were not checked. The consent judgment is not a finding that the allegations are true.

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. 2019-05-23 Litigation release published
2. 2020-11-06 Final consent judgment entered against Robert Morgan: injunction, no further monetary relief

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 24960 (Morgan consent judgment)

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.