The Securities Fraudster’s Shopping List
What happens to investors’ money during a securities fraud? Often, it goes shopping. We reviewed six years of SEC enforcement actions, from January 2020 through December 2025, spanning administrations of both parties. Over that period, the SEC alleged in at least 85 enforcement actions that money taken from investors went to luxury purchases: 37 cases involving luxury cars, 35 involving jewelry, 20 involving private jet travel, 12 involving yachts or boats, 10 involving vacation or second homes, 4 involving designer goods, 2 involving luxury watches, and 2 involving fine art.
But there are a few caveats to these numbers. These are allegations in SEC complaints and administrative orders, some resolved, some still being litigated. And because our count rests on a full-text search of SEC “litigation releases” and administrative orders, it is a floor, not a ceiling. The most accurate number has to be higher! Can you believe it?
Curious about the most outrageous of shopping lists? We’ve featured three! Keep reading.
The Queen Mary wedding. The SEC halted what it called a “multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme” that targeted “retirement funds held by veterans and other investors.”1 Marco “Sully” Perez promised that frac sand would generate “guaranteed returns ranging from 10% to 100% in as little as 30 days,” raised at least $9.25 million from some 265 investors, and used “little, if any” of it to buy sand.2 Where did it go? Per the SEC: “exotic cars, private-jet travel, jewelry, gambling, and his wedding aboard the Queen Mary.”3 Perez is currently serving 14 years in prison and was ordered to pay more than $14 million in restitution.4
The Greek islands getaway. Adrian Kawuba promised “returns of 25% to 50% in as little as twelve days” from youth sports and entertainment financing, then spent his investors’ $2 million on “personal travel to the Greek islands,” a luxury automobile, and “tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of designer goods at fashion and jewelry stores.”5 He consented to a final judgment and pleaded guilty to wire fraud.6
The receivables empire that wasn’t. William Rhew III allegedly sold notes with “guaranteed annual returns of up to 48 percent,” raising over $28 million from about 130 investors, and used their money to “fund his lavish lifestyle, including purchasing flights on a private jet, a waterfront home, a Mercedes automobile, and a pleasure boat” — concealing it all with “fictitious account statements reflecting profits and increased asset values.”7 Rhew pleaded guilty in the parallel criminal case and was sentenced to 19 years;8 the SEC’s civil case continues.
The moral of the story: when someone promises outsized returns and lives like it, ask who is really paying for the jet. Or be the courageous whistleblower who brings the wrongdoing to an end.
This piece was written by Christina Milnor of Milnor Law PLLC
1 SEC Litigation Release No. 25293, SEC, SEC Halts Texas-Based Ponzi Scheme Targeting Veterans (Dec. 22, 2021), https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-25293.
2 Id.
3 Id.
4 Press Release, Keller Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison and Ordered to Pay $14M in Restitution for Ponzi Scheme, U.S. Dep’t Just. (July 15, 2022), https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdtx/pr/keller-man-sentenced-14-years-prison-and-ordered-pay-14m-restitution-ponzi-scheme.
5 SEC Litigation Release No. 25577, SEC, SEC Charges Massachusetts Resident with Conducting $2 Million Fraudulent Investment Offering (Nov. 14, 2022), https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-25577.
6 Press Release, Watertown Man Pleads Guilty to African Sports Ponzi Scheme, U.S. Dep’t Just. (Dec. 20, 2023), https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/watertown-man-pleads-guilty-african-sports-ponzi-scheme.
7 SEC Litigation Release No. 26129, SEC, SEC Charges North Carolina Business Owner with Multimillion-Dollar Fraud (Sept. 25, 2024), https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26129.
8 Press Release, Summerfield Man Sentenced to 19 Years for Ponzi Scheme and Tax Fraud, U.S. Dep’t Just. (Aug. 22, 2025), https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdnc/pr/summerfield-man-sentenced-19-years-ponzi-scheme-and-tax-fraud.
