SEC v. John A. Geringer and GLR Advisors (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Settled

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In February 2015 the SEC announced a consent final judgment in the Northern District of California against John A. Geringer and GLR Advisors, LLC, requiring $2,772,475 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, in a case alleging they ran the GLR Growth Fund like a Ponzi scheme.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$2.8m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$2.8m

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 amended complaint alleged that the $60 million fund hid actual trading losses behind imaginary profits. Geringer pleaded guilty in June 2014 to conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud and awaited sentencing when the release was issued. The consent judgment, entered February 3, 2015, enjoins both defendants from further antifraud violations.

The $2.77 million is disgorgement and prejudgment interest combined, as the release gives it. The record showed no money.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

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. 2015-02-23 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.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.