SEC v. Matthew J. Skinner, et al. (2021)

Judgment entered

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In June 2021 the SEC charged California promoter Matthew Skinner and five of his entities over four allegedly fraudulent real estate offerings. A Commission opinion states that on June 17, 2022 the Central District of California entered judgment against Skinner for $4,795,163.51 in disgorgement and an equal penalty, and that he was sentenced to 77 months in a parallel criminal case.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-25127
Date filed	2021-06-29
Date resolved	2022-06-17
Status	judgment
Criminal parallel	Yes: sentenced (Matthew J. Skinner), 2022-11-21
Sentence	6y 5m
Bars imposed	industry bar (broker, dealer, investment adviser, etc.), penny stock bar
Defendants	Matthew J. Skinner (individual) ; Empire West Equity, Inc. (entity) ; Bayside Equity, LP (entity) ; Longacre Estates, LP (entity) ; Freedom Equity Fund LLC (entity) ; Simple Growth, LLC (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.15(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $4.8m
Disgorgement: $4.8m
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: $9.6m
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 SEC announced the complaint on June 29, 2021 (LR-25127) in the Central District of California. It alleges he spent on personal and unrelated expenses and made some Ponzi-like payments to other investors.

The Ponzi tag is removed because the release is headed multiple offering frauds. A conduct-based injunction that was only sought is cleared and the "et al." defendants are named.

Outcome: the Commission's January 3, 2025 opinion in the follow-on administrative proceeding (File No. 3-21001) says the court granted the SEC summary judgment in June 2022, found Skinner liable under Sections 5 and 17(a), Exchange Act Sections 10(b) and 15(a) and Rule 10b-5, enjoined him and ordered disgorgement of $4,795,163.51, with a third-tier penalty in the same amount; the opinion takes official notice of the final judgment of June 17, 2022. Disgorgement was joint and several with the corporate co-defendants. It also says he pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud and was sentenced on November 21, 2022 to 77 months, and it bars him from the securities industry and from penny stock offerings. The corporate co-defendants' own outcomes were not checked, so this record covers Skinner only.

Timeline

2021-06-29 Litigation release published
2022-06-17 Final judgment against Skinner (C.D. Cal.), as described in the Commission opinion
2025-01-03 Commission opinion bars Skinner from the securities industry and penny stock offerings

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.