SEC v. Santillo, Parris, LaRocco, Piccarreto and Brenner (ponzi schemes, 2018)

Settled

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In June 2018 the SEC charged five individuals and three issuers with a $102 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 600 investors. Perry Santillo, Christopher Parris, Paul LaRocco and John Piccarreto later consented to final judgments in 2024, and the SEC barred each from the securities industry; the others named were not checked.

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 complaint, filed June 19, 2018, alleges the defendants spent at least $20 million on themselves, paid $38.5 million in Ponzi-like payments, and moved most of the rest in transactions unrelated to the issuers' stated businesses. The court granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

SEC administrative orders show how the case ended for four of the named defendants. Piccarreto consented to a final judgment on 21 June 2024, Santillo on 17 April 2024, and Parris and LaRocco on 2 September 2024, each enjoining them from antifraud violations in the Southern District of New York; the orders give no civil money amounts, so none are recorded. Each of the four pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case and was sentenced: Santillo to 210 months, Parris to 220 months, Piccarreto to 84 months and LaRocco to 60 months, with the sentence recorded here being Santillo's. The Commission, by consent, barred Santillo in August 2024, LaRocco in August 2025, and Parris and Piccarreto in August 2026 from association with brokers, advisers and similar firms. The orders do not cover Thomas Brenner or the named issuers, so their outcomes were not checked.

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. 2018-06-20 Litigation release published
2. 2024-04-17 Consent judgment entered against Santillo
3. 2024-06-21 Consent judgment entered against Piccarreto
4. 2024-09-02 Consent judgments entered against Parris and LaRocco

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 administrative order against Perry Santillo
• SEC administrative order against Christopher Parris
• SEC administrative order against John Piccarreto
• SEC administrative order against Paul LaRocco

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.