SEC alleged PGI Global founder raised $198 million through crypto-and-forex fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against PGI Global founder Ramil Ventura Palafox on April 22, 2025, alleging that he secured more than $198 million in bitcoin and fiat currency through an international investment scheme and misappropriated more than $57 million.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, concerned conduct the SEC placed between January 2020 and October 2021. PGI Global presented itself as a cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange trading company. The regulator alleged that its trading claims, account dashboards and promised returns instead helped sustain an unregistered, Ponzi-like securities offering.

These were allegations at the complaint stage. The April 22 filing did not constitute a judicial finding of fraud or establish civil liability.

What investors were allegedly promised

According to the SEC, investors purchased PGI Global “membership packages” by transferring bitcoin, sending bank wires or providing cash and checks. Certain packages allegedly promised daily returns ranging from 0.5% to 3%, beginning within three days, and total returns of as much as 200% on an investment.

The complaint said PGI Global also offered multi-level-marketing-style rewards for recruiting additional participants. Those incentives allegedly ranged from a pen to automobiles and real estate, depending on the amount of new money recruited.

Palafox and promoters working at his direction allegedly represented that PGI Global profitably traded bitcoin and foreign currencies, possessed relevant industry expertise and operated an artificial-intelligence-powered automated trading platform. The SEC alleged that the automated platform did not exist, that PGI Global conducted little or no trading for investors, and that profits displayed on investor dashboards were fictitious.

The regulator further alleged that most funds not diverted for personal or insider benefit were circulated from newer participants to earlier investors as purported returns and referral rewards. PGI Global had never filed a registration statement for the membership-package offerings, the complaint said.

Bitcoin was a payment rail and a marketing claim

The filing mattered to the digital-asset industry because bitcoin appeared in two distinct roles. Investors allegedly used BTC to fund packages, while claims of profitable crypto trading supplied the venture’s investment narrative. The SEC’s case did not allege a failure in Bitcoin’s protocol. It alleged conventional misappropriation, false statements and unregistered securities sales conducted partly through cryptocurrency.

The complaint included a specific example from July through October 2020: the SEC alleged that Palafox transferred more than 364 BTC from PGI Global-controlled addresses to a money-services business and converted the deposits into approximately $3.8 million in cash. It also alleged that a roughly $300,000 cash conversion on September 22, 2020 was followed by the purchase of a Lamborghini for approximately the same amount.

Those transaction descriptions came from the SEC’s investigation and had not been tested at trial by April 22, 2025. The complaint did not publish a complete address-level accounting from which an independent reader could reproduce the regulator’s full $198 million or $57 million totals.

What the SEC sought

The SEC charged Palafox with alleged violations of the antifraud and registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It requested permanent injunctions, disgorgement with prejudgment interest and civil penalties. The agency also sought restrictions on Palafox’s participation in certain securities-related marketing programs and crypto-asset securities offerings.

BBMR Threshold LLC, Darvie Mendoza, Marissa Mendoza Palafox and Linda Ventura were named as relief defendants rather than as the principal defendant. The SEC sought recovery of assets it alleged they received without a legitimate claim.

The April 22 record therefore established the government’s accusations and requested remedies—not their truth, the amount recoverable by investors or the eventual disposition of either the civil matter or the referenced parallel criminal proceeding.