SEC v. Robert Joseph Armijo, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2021)

Settled

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In June 2021 the SEC sued Robert Armijo and Joseph Financial, Inc. On 9 January 2024 the Southern District of California entered a consent final judgment holding them jointly and severally liable for US$910,326 in disgorgement and US$129,607 in interest, with a US$75,000 civil penalty, payable to a receiver.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$75k

Disgorgement

$910k

Prejudgment interest

$130k

Total relief

$1.1m

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 announced the complaint on June 15, 2021 (LR-25116) in the Southern District of California, covering February 2016 to February 2020. It followed charges against EquiAlt and four of its top sales agents.

The record named the defendants as "Robert Joseph Armijo, et al."; both are now listed. The tag is retained pending the lead's decision on unregistered sellers of third-party Ponzi products.

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 final judgment of 9 January 2024 records the consent of Armijo and Joseph Financial, without admitting or denying the allegations, to injunctions against registration and anti-fraud violations. They are jointly and severally liable for US$910,326 in disgorgement and US$129,607 in prejudgment interest, plus a US$75,000 civil penalty, totalling US$1,114,933, payable to the court-appointed receiver. For bankruptcy purposes Armijo admits the complaint's allegations.

The Ponzi characterisation in the title and tags is this library's classification of the complaint's allegations, which the consent did not test.

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. 2021-06-15 Litigation release published
2. 2024-01-09 Final consent judgment entered

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 as to Armijo and Joseph Financial (9 January 2024)

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.