SEC v. Robert H. Shapiro and Woodbridge Group of Companies (ponzi schemes, 2017)

Settled

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In December 2017 the SEC charged Robert H. Shapiro and the Woodbridge Group of Companies in Miami with a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 8,400 investors, and obtained an asset freeze. A consent final judgment against Shapiro, entered December 27, 2018, orders $18.5 million in disgorgement, $2.2 million in interest and a $100 million penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$100m

Disgorgement

$18.5m

Prejudgment interest

$2.2m

Total relief

$121m

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 December 20, 2017 and unsealed the next day, alleges Woodbridge advertised hard-money loans to third parties paying 11 to 15 percent, while most borrowers were Shapiro-owned companies that never repaid, investors were paid with other investors' money, $64.5 million went in sales commissions and at least $21 million to Shapiro. It collapsed in December when payments stopped and Woodbridge entered bankruptcy. The record listed the lead name as a single string ending "et al."

Outcome: the final judgment against Shapiro, signed December 27, 2018 by the Southern District of Florida, records that he consented without admitting or denying. It enjoins him from violating Sections 5, 17(a) and 10(b), from control-person violations and from aiding and abetting broker registration violations, and orders disgorgement of $18,546,643, prejudgment interest of $2,163,613.69 and a $100,000,000 civil penalty, a total of $120,710,256.69. The judgment covers Shapiro only; we did not open any document on the Woodbridge companies, which entered bankruptcy, or on the criminal case, and the document does not show what 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. 2017-12-21 Litigation release published
2. 2018-12-27 Consent final judgment entered against Robert H. Shapiro

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 against Robert H. Shapiro (S.D. Fla., December 27, 2018)

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.