Pending court approval, James Ward has settled Apex Financial securities fraud charges brought against him by the SEC.

Apex Financial was an MLM crypto Ponzi launched in 2021. The scheme was built around APT, a token Ward created.

In its September 2024 Complaint, the SEC alleged Ward defrauded “at least 70 investors” out of “at least $852,000”.

A joint motion seeking approval of a consent judgment was filed by the SEC on March 19th.

As per Ward’s consent judgment, he neither admits or denies the SEC’s Apex Financial fraud allegations.

Nonetheless, the judgment will see an injunction entered against Ward (right).

As per the consented to injunction, Ward will be prohibited from

  • committing further violations of the Securities and Exchange Act;
  • “participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security”; and
  • acting as an officer or director of a company with a security or securities registered with the SEC

On the money side of things;

The proposed judgment also provides that Ward will pay a civil penalty in an amount to be determined by the Court, upon motion by the SEC.

On March 25th, the Alabama District Court denied Ward’s first proposed consent judgment.

The court reasoned that Ward’s consent judgment contained “obey-the-law injunctions” (as detailed above), which were “unenforceable” and “can violate a defendant’s constitutional rights”.

In light of Ward representing himself, the court also expressed concern as to whether Ward was fully briefed on “possible risks” associated with the settlement.

On April 7th, the SEC filed a renewed motion seeking approval of a second consent judgment. In its renewed motion, the SEC argued

none of the proposed injunctions within the proposed judgment are improper “obey the law” injunctions and each satisfies the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 65(d).

A hearing on the SEC renewed motion is scheduled for May 16th, 2025.