SEC v. Daryl F. Heller, Prestige Investment Group, LLC, Paramount Management Group, LLC — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 26387, dated September 3, 2025.
The SEC charged Daryl F. Heller and his companies, Prestige Investment Group, LLC and Paramount Management Group, LLC, with operating a $770 million Ponzi scheme. Investors lost approximately $400 million, with Heller allegedly misappropriating over $185 million for personal use. The scheme promised high, fixed monthly returns from ATM investments, but primarily used new investor funds and loans to pay existing investors.
In Plain English
Imagine someone promised you a great return on an investment, like putting your money into a bunch of ATMs that would make money from every transaction. They said they'd pay you a fixed amount every month from that income. But, in reality, they weren't making enough money from the ATMs to pay everyone. So, they used money from new people joining the investment to pay the earlier investors. The person in charge also took a lot of the money for themselves, buying things like a beach house. When new investors stopped coming, the payments stopped, and people lost their money.
Disclaimer: all facts are drawn from the SEC's own filings; the claims described are allegations unless and until a court rules or the parties settle, and some cases end in dismissal.
How the Alleged Scheme Worked
- Setting Up the ATM Investment From January 2017 through June 2024, Daryl F. Heller and his companies, Prestige Investment Group, LLC and Paramount Management Group, LLC, began a Ponzi-like scheme. They raised over $770 million from about 2,700 investors, many of whom were retail investors.
- Promising High Returns Heller and Prestige sold investments in 'ATM Funds,' promising investors an approximate 25% return. These funds were purportedly invested in automated teller machines (ATMs) managed and operated by Paramount.
- Creating a False Impression Heller used his control over Paramount and Prestige to make it seem like they were running a successful, nationwide ATM network. Investors were led to believe they would receive fixed monthly distributions from ATM transaction fees and related charges.
- Misrepresenting Profitability The defendants misrepresented the actual size and profitability of the ATM network to investors. In reality, the network generated hundreds of millions less in operating income than what was needed to pay the promised investor distributions.
- Funding Distributions with New Money To pay the promised distributions, the defendants primarily used money raised from new investors. They also relied on high-interest, short-term loans from merchant cash advance companies.
- Misappropriating Investor Funds Heller allegedly misappropriated approximately $185 million of investor funds for his own benefit. This included personal expenses, such as purchasing a beach house on the New Jersey shore, and financing his other businesses.
- Using Old and Broken ATMs During the scheme, only a fraction of investor funds were used to purchase ATMs. Many of the purchased machines were old, in disrepair, and left sitting in warehouses, not generating income.
- Scheme Collapse In the spring of 2024, the scheme began to collapse as new investments slowed down. Consequently, the defendants stopped making payments to existing investors.
- Broken Promises From April 2024 through the end of the year, the defendants offered excuses and promised future payments. They eventually claimed they would buy out investors' interests, but no additional payments were ever made, defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Enforcement Action
The SEC charged Daryl F. Heller, Prestige Investment Group, LLC, and Paramount Management Group, LLC with operating a multi-year Ponzi scheme that defrauded approximately 2,700 investors out of $400 million. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against the defendants, as well as a conduct-based injunction and officer and director bar against Heller. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced parallel criminal charges against Heller.
Named in this action: Daryl F. Heller, Prestige Investment Group, LLC, Paramount Management Group, LLC.