SEC v. Yossi Engel (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Settled

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In January 2023 the SEC sued Los Angeles resident Yossi Engel over an alleged $47 million affinity fraud against members of the Orthodox Jewish community. On July 15, 2024 he consented to a final judgment with disgorgement of $5,099,826 and interest of $381,731.80; the disgorgement is deemed satisfied by a criminal restitution order of $11,758,030.58.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$5.1m

Prejudgment interest

$382k

Total relief

$5.5m

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 January 12, 2023 as release LR-25613. The complaint alleges a $47 million affinity fraud on at least 29 members of the Orthodox Jewish community in which Engel misappropriated investor money and made Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors.

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. SEC Litigation Release 26052 (July 19, 2024) says the SEC obtained a final judgment on July 15, 2024 in C.D. Cal. No. 2:23-cv-00213. Engel consented to a permanent injunction under Section 17(a), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and to disgorgement of $5,099,826, described as net profits, plus prejudgment interest of $381,731.80. The release says the disgorgement figure is deemed satisfied by the restitution order of $11,758,030.58 in the parallel criminal case, United States v. Engel, CR 23-00213. No civil penalty or sentence is stated. The $47 million fraud described in the complaint was an allegation in the civil case.

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. 2023-01-12 Litigation release published
2. 2024-07-15 Final consent judgment entered (disgorgement $5,099,826, interest $381,731.80)

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 26052 (final judgment)

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.