SEC v. Austin D. Ellison-Meade (2023)

Judgment entered

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In January 2023 the SEC sued Austin Ellison-Meade over an alleged misappropriation of at least $2.8 million raised for an investment club called Baycap.io. On September 3, 2025 the Central District of California entered a default judgment with disgorgement of $2,917,751.02 and interest of $820,668.13, deemed satisfied by a criminal restitution order.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$2.9m

Prejudgment interest

$821k

Total relief

$3.7m

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 24, 2023 as release LR-25625. The complaint alleges that Ellison-Meade raised at least $2.8 million from about 31 investors in the Baycap.io club without trading, used funds for personal expenses and Ponzi-like payments, and issued fake statements.

This library does not tag the matter as a Ponzi scheme: on a source check, the document mentions Ponzi-like payments only in passing, or as part of another party's scheme, and the charges are about something else. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

A parallel criminal proceeding is referenced. Civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

Outcome. SEC Litigation Release 26389 (September 5, 2025) says that on September 3, 2025 the court entered a judgment on the basis of default in C.D. Cal. No. 2:23-cv-00521. It permanently enjoins Ellison-Meade under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, Section 17(a), and Sections 206(1), 206(2) and 206(4) of the Advisers Act, bars him from participating in unregistered securities offerings other than for his own account, and orders disgorgement of $2,917,751.02 and prejudgment interest of $820,668.13, deemed satisfied by the restitution order in United States v. Ellison-Meade, 8-22-cr-00094. No civil penalty or sentence is stated. Because the judgment is by default, the SEC's allegations were not tested in contested proceedings.

Timeline

1. 2023-01-24 Litigation release published
2. 2025-09-03 Default final judgment entered (disgorgement $2,917,751.02, interest $820,668.13)

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 26389 (default 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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.