SEC v. Syed Arham Arbab, Artis Proficio Capital Investments, LLC, and Artis Proficio Capital Management, LLC (ponzi schemes, 2019)

Settled

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In June 2019 the SEC filed an emergency action against then 22-year-old Syed Arham Arbab and two Artis Proficio Capital entities, alleging a Ponzi scheme run from a Georgia fraternity house that took over $269,000 from at least eight students and relatives. On 8 August 2024 a Georgia federal court entered a final judgment against Arbab on his consent: $509,032.12 in disgorgement, treated as satisfied by criminal restitution, and $65,544.15 in interest still payable. He pleaded guilty in a parallel case and began a five-year sentence in January 2021.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$509k

Prejudgment interest

$65.5k

Total relief

$575k

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 June 3, 2019 (LR-24486), filed May 31 in the Middle District of Georgia. It alleges Arbab spent investor money on Las Vegas trips and shopping, paid earlier investors with new money and directed new investors to pay existing ones through payment apps.

The record originally ran the first two defendants together; the three defendants are now listed separately.

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. A final judgment filed in the Middle District of Georgia on 8 August 2024 records that Arbab consented to its entry without contesting it, and incorporates a permanent injunction entered earlier (in an amended judgment of 8 April 2021). It finds him liable for $509,032.12 in disgorgement of net profits plus $65,544.15 in prejudgment interest; the court deems the disgorgement satisfied by the restitution order in his criminal case for the same amount but still imposes the interest, so $65,544.15 is the sum payable. A November 2022 SEC release about a separate freeriding case adds that Arbab began a five-year prison sentence in January 2021 after pleading guilty. The judgment concerns Arbab only; the two Artis Proficio entities named in the record were not addressed in the document I read and 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. 2019-06-03 Litigation release published
2. 2024-08-08 Final consent judgment entered against Syed Arham Arbab: $509,032.12 disgorgement (deemed satisfied by criminal restitution) and $65,544.15 interest

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 25567 (later case mentioning Arbab's sentence)
• Final judgment as to Syed Arham Arbab (SEC-hosted court filing)

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.