SEC v. Rudden, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2018)

Settled

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In July 2018 the SEC sued Daniel Rudden and his Financial Visions companies over an alleged Ponzi scheme that took in more than 100 investors. On 15 October 2020 the District of Colorado entered a consent judgment with an injunction and $6,511,721 in disgorgement, offset by criminal restitution; Rudden had been sentenced to 121 months in June 2019.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$6.5m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$6.5m

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 case on July 26, 2018 (LR-24216); the complaint was filed under seal in the District of Colorado. It alleges that since about 2010 Rudden paid interest and redemptions with new investors' money, hid the companies' real condition, and promised returns of 12% or more. Three entities were named as relief defendants. The complaint asked for injunctions, disgorgement and penalties; the outcome is described below.

The record named the defendant as "Rudden, et al." and showed status unknown; the principal and his companies are now named and the status is filed.

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.

A later SEC litigation release shows the case ended in a consent judgment. On 15 October 2020 the District of Colorado entered a final consent judgment against Rudden and the Financial Visions companies, permanently enjoining them from antifraud violations and ordering disgorgement of $6,511,721, to be offset by the restitution ordered in the related criminal case. The release says Rudden was sentenced in June 2019 to 121 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $20 million in restitution, and that his frozen assets may be applied to that restitution. It does not state a civil penalty or prejudgment interest, or whether the defendants admitted the allegations.

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. 2018-07-26 Litigation release published
2. 2020-10-15 Final consent judgment entered: injunction and $6,511,721 disgorgement, offset by criminal restitution

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 LR-24946 (final 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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.