SEC Halts $22 Million Fraud Targeting Retirement Funds

Press Release, Aug 16, 2006

 The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed an emergency action to halt an ongoing securities fraud targeted at retirement funds. The fraud has raised over $22 million to date. Named in the Commission's complaint are Jon W. James, age 29 and a resident of Manhattan Beach, Calif., and several companies that he controls, including Jon W. James & Associates (JWJA), based in El Segundo, Calif. The Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, issued an order appointing a temporary receiver over the companies controlled by James and freezing assets.

Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said, “This case reaffirms the Commission's commitment to aggressively investigate and take prompt action against frauds targeting Americans’ retirement funds. This is precisely the kind of rapid response envisioned at the SEC’s first-ever Seniors Summit last month, where the SEC joined with state regulators and others to examine how to best protect older Americans from investment fraud. Today's action demonstrates yet again that the Commission will not tolerate frauds that prey upon investors’ life savings.”

Randall R. Lee, Director of the SEC’s Pacific Regional Office in Los Angeles, said, “In this case, the Commission sought emergency relief to protect investors from being defrauded of their hard-earned retirement funds. As set forth in the Commission's complaint, the defendants in this case pitched free dinner and retirement planning seminars to potential investors. At these “free” seminars, they promised unrealistically high rates of return in order to entice investors to transfer their IRA savings to the defendants for investment in purported businesses, which were largely non-existent.” Read more at sec.gov