A federal judge in Texas has ordered Caedrynn E. Conner to pay $8,575,250 in disgorgement over his part in a Ponzi scheme pitched as the “Vanguard JV Cash Program,” the Securities and Exchange Commission says. The SEC alleges the scheme raised at least $91 million from more than 200 investors between May 2021 and February 2024.
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The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered the final consent judgments on September 28, 2026, and the SEC announced them October 7 in Litigation Release 26668. Conner agreed to the judgment without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations. On top of the disgorgement, which means giving up money the SEC says he gained from the scheme, he owes $1,357,072 in prejudgment interest and a $500,000 civil penalty. The three amounts come to $10,432,322.
The case also produced a judgment against a second defendant, Robert D. Welsh, and it leaves a third, Kenneth W. Alexander II, without a reported outcome. For anyone who has ever been pitched an investment that pays a fixed monthly return, the facts of how this one was sold are the useful part.
The SEC’s releases do not say how the more than 200 investors were found or contacted. Anyone who gets investment pitches by phone, mail or email has a stake in how widely their contact details circulate, and Incogni sends removal requests to data brokers and people-search sites for you and keeps re-sending them.
What the judgment against Conner contains
Beyond the money, the judgment permanently bars Conner from violating Section 5 and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and the SEC’s Rule 10b-5, the main antifraud provisions. It also bars him from taking part in the offer, sale, issuance or purchase of any security, except for trades in his own personal accounts.
The SEC says Conner helped and took part in the Vanguard program. In July 2022 he created the Benchmark JV Cash Program, which pooled investor money and put it into the Vanguard program. The SEC’s complaint says that by the end of 2022 he knew, or was severely reckless in not knowing, facts that pointed to a fraud.
How the Vanguard JV Cash Program was pitched
According to the SEC’s original May 2025 charging release, investors were promised 12 monthly payments of 3% to 6%, with their principal returned after 14 months. Alexander and Welsh ran the program through the Vanguard Holdings Group Irrevocable Trust, and the SEC says they falsely promoted it as a highly profitable international bond trading business with billions in assets.
The SEC says the trust had no material source of revenue. The monthly returns, it says, were Ponzi payments, meaning they were paid out of money from newer investors. Investors could also buy a product called a “pay order,” marketed as protection against loss. The SEC alleges that protection was not real.
The money did not all go back out to investors. The SEC says Alexander and Conner used millions of dollars of investor funds for personal purposes, including Conner’s purchase of a $5 million home. It also says Conner funneled more than $46 million of investor money into the Vanguard trust through the program he ran using the Benchmark Capital Holdings Irrevocable Trust.
Welsh’s judgment and the unfinished defendants
Welsh consented to a judgment with the same antifraud injunctions and the same bar from securities offerings. His money terms are smaller: $1,062,069 in disgorgement, $168,077 in prejudgment interest and a $450,000 penalty, a total of $1,680,146. The SEC alleges that he and Alexander operated the scheme from May 2021 to February 2024.
The release reports no judgment against Alexander, who is named first in the case caption, SEC v. Kenneth W. Alexander II, et al., filed April 29, 2025. All three defendants are Dallas-Fort Worth residents. The release does not say what happens next for Alexander, and it does not say how much of the judgments will go back to investors. The SEC has not announced a distribution plan.
The Fort Worth Regional Office investigated. The litigation is led by Jason Rose and supervised by Keefe Bernstein.
Testing a monthly-return pitch before sending money
The SEC’s investor education site, Investor.gov, describes a Ponzi scheme as an investment fraud that pays earlier investors with money from newer ones. It lists the warning signs: high returns with little or no risk, overly consistent returns, unregistered investments, secretive or complex strategies, and difficulty receiving payments.
Several of those fit the pitch the SEC describes here. A fixed 3% to 6% a month, a promised return of principal on a set date, and a loss-protection product are the kind of terms the site says to question. The site also says investment professionals and firms must be licensed or registered, so a salesperson’s registration is the first thing to check, and the Investor.gov background-check tool is the free place to start.
The litigation release and the original charging release are the free official accounts of what the SEC alleges and what the court ordered, and they give the case name and number, SEC v. Alexander, No. 4:25-cv-00446, for anyone who wants to look up the docket.
Over 200 investors heard the Vanguard JV Cash pitch
The SEC’s releases do not say how those investors were reached, and that is the detail worth acting on: phone numbers, home addresses and email addresses listed on data broker and people-search sites are what any promoter has to work with. Incogni asks data brokers and people-search sites to remove personal information, sends removal requests on your behalf and keeps re-sending them, and less personal data on broker lists can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails. Each request shows its status in your Incogni account.
Have Incogni send broker removal requests for your phone number and address →
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
