SEC v. South Bay Acquisitions, LLC and John N. Matson (ponzi schemes, 2024)

Settled

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In July 2024 the SEC sued South Bay Acquisitions, LLC and John N. Matson in the Southern District of California over an alleged Ponzi-like scheme. The defendants consented to a judgment, and after a contested remedies motion the court entered a final judgment on March 17, 2025 with injunctions, an issuance bar and an officer-and-director bar for Matson, $108,948.14 in prejudgment interest and a $1,000 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

$109k

Total relief

$110k

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on July 31, 2024 as release LR-26064. The complaint alleges that Matson and his holding company raised over $1.5 million from five investors through LLC bonds, diverted money to his personal account and operated South Bay as a Ponzi scheme paying earlier investors with later money.

This library tags the matter as a Ponzi scheme because the document describes returns to earlier investors paid from later investors' money, as alleged or found. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. The final judgment in SEC v. Matson (S.D. Cal. 3:24-cv-01342, Document 23, signed March 17, 2025) recites that the defendants had consented and that the SEC then moved for remedies; the docket shows the court granting that motion in part on February 24, 2025 after asking for extra computations. The judgment permanently enjoins both defendants from violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and from taking part in the issuance of any security, bars Matson from serving as an officer or director of a public-reporting company, and holds Matson liable for prejudgment interest of $108,948.14 and a civil penalty of $1,000. The pages we read state no disgorgement figure, so none is stored. This is a consent-based resolution, and the judgment as shown names both defendants.

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. 2024-07-31 Litigation release published
2. 2025-03-17 Final judgment entered against John N. Matson and South Bay Acquisitions, LLC

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 (S.D. Cal. 3:24-cv-01342, Doc. 23), via CourtListener

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.