SEC Bars Imprisoned Ex-Woodbridge Sales Manager
Ivan Acevedo recently started a five-year sentence for his role in the $1.2 billion Woodbridge Ponzi scheme.
The Securities and Exchange Commission barred one of the former sales managers at the Woodbridge Group of Cos. LLC who were charged in 2019 for their roles in the massive, $1.2 billion Woodbridge Ponzi scheme.
In an order on Jan. 19 that was posted on the SEC’s website, the regulator said it accepted an offer of settlement by Ivan Acevedo in which he agreed to be barred from associating with any broker, dealer, investment advisor, municipal securities dealer, municipal advisor, transfer agent or nationally recognized statistical rating organization.
He also agreed to be barred from participating in any offering of a penny stock and for any reapplication in the future to be subject to the applicable laws and regulations governing the reentry process, according to the SEC.
Acevedo recently started serving a five-year prison sentence for his role in the Woodbridge Ponzi scheme, the SEC said.
The SEC had charged Acevedo and Dane R. Roseman, who is also serving a five-year prison sentence, with fraud in a complaint filed April 11, 2019, in a complaint filed at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
As part of a separate Justice Department investigation, Acevedo and Roseman were arrested and charged by criminal authorities in 2019, along with Woodbridge owner Robert H. Shapiro.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Shapiro operated Woodbridge as a Ponzi scheme, which, from July 2012 through December 2017, raised at least $1.22 billion from more than 8,400 investors nationwide through fraudulent unregistered securities offerings.
Many of the investors were older adults, and, together, Acevedo and Roseman received more than $3 million in transaction-based and other compensation, according to the SEC.