SEC Obtains TRO and Asset Freeze against Alleged Perpetrators of nearly $450 Million Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges and an asset freeze against several Las Vegas-area individuals and companies allegedly behind a nearly half-billion dollar Ponzi scheme involving purported personal injury settlements. The SEC charged certain defendants with violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, certain individual defendants with acting as unregistered brokers, and all defendants with engaging in an unregistered securities offering. According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, attorney Matthew Beasley and cohorts Jeffrey Judd and Christopher Humphries falsely told hundreds of investors, including many in their own church community, that they would earn 12.5 percent quarterly returns by making purportedly risk-free investments in J&J Consulting Services.