The SEC filed charges against Reign Financial International, LLC, Reign Financial International, Inc., and five individuals on May 12, 2026. The agency says the defendants ran a fraudulent high-yield investment program that raised more than $26 million from at least 31 investors.
What the SEC alleges about Reign Financial
According to Litigation Release LR-26552, Reign Financial and its principals promoted three investment programs: the Compass Program, the PBL & 5Js Program, and the Reign Program. The SEC says investors were promised weekly returns of 75% to 125%. One investor was allegedly promised 300% monthly returns on a $20 million commitment.
These promised returns were fictitious. The defendants had no reasonable basis to believe they could generate the profits they advertised. The SEC complaint says Reign defendants told investors their money would sit safely in a custodial or hedge fund account for a short time before trading began. They claimed a bank trading platform and special contacts would generate profits. The SEC says these contacts did not exist and the defendants had never been introduced to them.
Berone Capital and the investment advisers charged
The SEC also charged Berone Capital, LLC, Jeremiah Beguesse, and Fabian Stone with violations of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The agency alleges these defendants misappropriated assets from the Berone Capital Fund LP and breached fiduciary duties to investors.
Dollar amounts and the final judgment
The settled defendants agreed to pay a combined total of nearly $2.6 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The disgorgement alone totals $1,116,650, with $372,420 in prejudgment interest and another $1,116,650 in civil penalties.
While the scheme raised over $26 million, the SEC has not yet disclosed a full accounting of investor losses. The small number of known investors — 31 — relative to the large dollar amount suggests concentrated losses among a handful of victims, a pattern that often leads to severe financial harm.
Why this case matters for retirees and conservative investors
The Reign Financial case follows a familiar playbook: promise extraordinary returns, claim access to exclusive trading platforms, and pressure investors into large commitments. Retirees with accumulated savings are especially vulnerable because the promised income streams look like solutions to low-yield environments.
We have seen this pattern before. In 2025, Nightingale Properties allegedly raised more than $52 million from 700 retail investors using similar tactics. The SEC has also flagged the Paramount Management Group matter, involving roughly 2,700 investors and $400 million in losses. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a broader problem: when interest rates rise, scam promoters use the higher-rate environment as cover for impossible yield claims.
Investors over 55 should remember that any program promising 75% weekly returns is almost certainly a fraud. The math does not work. No legitimate trading platform generates that kind of return on a consistent basis. The red flags in this case were obvious, yet 31 people still committed substantial capital.
