SEC v. Austin D. Ellison-Meade (2025)

Judgment entered

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In September 2025 the SEC announced a judgment against Austin D. Ellison-Meade. A default final judgment of 3 September 2025 orders $2,917,751 in disgorgement and $820,668 in interest, deemed satisfied by criminal restitution, and bars unregistered offerings. io investment club case alleged misappropriation and Ponzi-like payments as one use of funds.

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 September 5, 2025 as release LR-26389. A default final judgment of 3 September 2025 orders $2,917,751 in disgorgement and $820,668 in interest, deemed satisfied by criminal restitution, and bars unregistered offerings. The Baycap.io investment club case alleged misappropriation and Ponzi-like payments as one use of funds.

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.

The relief recorded in our data is disgorgement of $2,917,751, prejudgment interest of $820,668, as the release or order states it. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

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

Timeline

1. 2025-09-05 Litigation release published

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

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.