SEC v. William V. Conn, Jr. (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Settled

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In August 2023 the SEC charged accountant William V. Conn, Jr. with aiding a Ponzi scheme and running a separate fraud. A consent final judgment filed November 26, 2024 orders disgorgement of $699,760, interest of $54,738 and a $100,000 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$100k

Disgorgement

$700k

Prejudgment interest

$54.7k

Total relief

$854k

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 August 31, 2023 as release LR-25819. The complaint alleges that Conn, an accountant, served as public-facing manager of an investment fund so that Woods could run a Ponzi scheme raising over $110 million, and separately misappropriated nearly $2 million from 21 clients through another fund.

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.

The final judgment, filed on November 26, 2024 in the Northern District of Georgia, recites that Conn consented to its entry without admitting or denying the allegations. It enjoins him from violating antifraud provisions, including the Investment Advisers Act provisions while acting as an investment adviser, and orders disgorgement of $699,760, prejudgment interest of $54,738 and a civil penalty of $100,000, a total of $854,498.

The document does not describe the outcome of any criminal case, and this record does not report one.

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. 2023-08-31 Litigation release published
2. 2024-11-26 Consent final judgment filed

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 as to William V. Conn, Jr.

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.