SEC v. William M. Apostelos and WMA Enterprises (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Judgment entered

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The SEC's October 2015 case against William Apostelos and his companies ended, as to Apostelos, in a judgment entered on 21 August 2019 in the Southern District of Ohio after the court granted the SEC summary judgment. It orders $11,194,472 in disgorgement and $587,371 in interest, deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution and forfeiture orders. He was sentenced to 180 months in prison; default judgments followed against his three companies and four relief defendants in October 2018.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$11.2m

Prejudgment interest

$587k

Total relief

$11.8m

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 complaint, filed October 29, 2015 in the Southern District of Ohio, alleges Apostelos told investors their money would be pooled and invested in stocks, metals, real estate and loans, but sent nearly all of it to WMA's accounts and used it for payments to earlier investors and promoters, other businesses he and his wife owned, and personal spending including gambling.

The allegations are unproven. The record had the status unknown and the name ending "et al."

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.

The court granted the SEC's motion for summary judgment on all claims, finding that Apostelos made material misrepresentations to investors, sold unregistered securities, acted as an unregistered broker and, as an adviser, violated the Advisers Act, and that he aided and abetted and controlled his companies' violations. It enjoined him and ordered $11,194,472 in disgorgement and $587,371 in prejudgment interest, treated as satisfied by the over $32 million in restitution and forfeiture ordered in his criminal case, in which he was sentenced to 15 years (180 months). On 1 October 2018 the court had already entered default judgments against WMA Enterprises, Midwest Green Resources and OVO Wealth Management and the relief defendants, ordering $11,781,844 in disgorgement and interest, also deemed satisfied by the criminal orders. These are findings by the court, not an admission by Apostelos.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

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. 2015-10-30 Litigation release published
2. 2018-10-01 Default judgments entered against the three companies and relief defendants (S.D. Ohio)
3. 2019-08-21 Summary judgment and final judgment entered against Apostelos (S.D. Ohio)

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 24617 (final judgment against Apostelos)
• Order granting the SEC's motion for summary judgment against Apostelos

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.