U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today charged PGI Global founder Ramil Palafox with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that raised approximately $198 million from global investors and misappropriated over $57 million of investor funds.

According to the SEC complaint, Palafox's company is named PGI Global and claims to be a cryptocurrency and forex trading company. From January 2020 to October 2021, Palafox offered and sold "membership" packages for PGI Global, claiming that these packages guaranteed investors high returns from PGI Global's so-called cryptocurrency and forex trading and provided members with referral rewards similar to multi-level marketing, encouraging them to recruit new investors. Palafox misappropriated over $57 million of investor funds to purchase Lamborghinis, luxury retail goods, and other personal expenses. He also used most of the remaining investor funds to pay other investors their supposed returns and referral rewards through a Ponzi-like scheme until the scheme was exposed at the end of 2021.

The U.S. SEC has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia federal court, charging Palafox with violating federal securities laws regarding anti-fraud and registration requirements. The lawsuit seeks permanent injunction relief, conduct-based injunction prohibiting Palafox from participating in multi-level marketing schemes involving the issuance or sale of securities and the issuance of cryptocurrency as securities, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The lawsuit also names BBMR Threshold LLC, Darvie Mendoza, Marissa Mendoza Palafox, and Linda Ventura as relief defendants and seeks disgorgement of their ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest.