The SEC reports that Nathanial Ponn, a defendant in an ongoing SEC litigation, pled guilty to 3 counts of wire fraud in connection with orchestrating a 3-year fraud scheme that involved hundreds of attempts to defraud various securities brokers. The court accepted Ponn's plea; sentencing is scheduled for March 2017.

Back on 3/31/16, the SEC charged Ponn with engaging in a scheme to defraud numerous broker-dealers over more than 7 years. According to the SEC complaint ….

• Beginning as early as 2007, but escalating in 2014 and continuing into at least April 2015, Ponn defrauded numerous brokerage firms through bogus bank transfers to newly opened brokerage accounts.
• These bogus transfers created the false appearance that the brokerage accounts would have cash available upon the settlement of Ponn's purchases of stocks and mutual fund shares.
• Ponn used temporary credits from the bogus transfers to purchase stock and mutual fund shares, which he repeatedly attempted to cash out or transfer to other financial institutions before the brokerages discovered that Ponn did not have actual money to fund the bank transfers.

The SEC's litigation against Ponn continues. The SEC's complaint seeks a permanent injunction plus disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalties.