SEC v. Zera Financial LLC and Luis A. Romero (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In October 2023 the SEC announced emergency action against Zera Financial LLC and Luis Romero over an offering that raised more than $2.2 million from about 170 investors with promised 3 percent monthly returns. An SEC notice shows a qualifying judgment or order in the case dated September 3, 2024; its terms are not stated in the source.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 October 3, 2023 as release LR-25878. The SEC obtained a restraining order and asset freeze and alleged that Zera and its owner raised more than $2.2 million from about 170 investors promising 3% monthly returns, with no meaningful business beyond raising money and making Ponzi-like payments.

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 only primary source I could reach is an SEC whistleblower notice of covered action, which lists the case (C.D. Cal. 23-cv-01807) with a date of qualifying judgment or order of September 3, 2024. Notices of this kind are posted for actions in which sanctions exceeded $1 million, so the notice indicates that a final judgment or order was entered then, but it does not say whether it was by consent, default or after contest, which defendants it covers, or the amounts. No money, bars or criminal facts are recorded.

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. 2023-10-03 Litigation release published
2. 2024-09-03 Qualifying judgment or order entered, per SEC whistleblower notice of covered action (terms not stated)

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 notice of covered action, SEC v. Zera Financial LLC

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.