the securities and exchange commission is suing the estate of a deceased investment advisor accused of having orchestrated a longrunning ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 50 investors out of more than 29 million the commission filed a complaint in a federal court in utah against the estate of stephen romney swensen and individuals and business entities that benefited from the alleged fraud which the sec says began in 2011 and continued past swensen’s death in june the sec is seeking an injunction against the business entities to halt the alleged scheme and disgorgement of illgotten gains from the defendants including swensen’s widow the sec’s complaint alleges that from july 2011 through swensen’s death this year he fraudulently recruited investors to put their money in crew capital group an entity that swensen controlled and promoted as a safe investment fund that paid a guaranteed minimum annual return of 5 and up to 10 in favorable market conditions but crew capital group didn’t purchase any securities according to the sec which alleged that swensen pooled investors’ funds in a bank account he solely controlled and siphoned other portions of their investments into other business entities he controlled “swensen then used a portion of the money to make periodic payments of fictitious earnings to certain investors in a ponzilike fashion and used the bulk of the money for personal expenses including the living expenses of his family and his mistresses and luxuries such as private airplanes” the sec said in its complaint court records indicate that none of the defendants has formally hired a defense attorney contact information for crew capital and the other business entities was not immediately available a phone number listed for swensen capital one of the business entities named in the sec complaint that swensen allegedly diverted money to is not in service the sec alleged that swensen made considerable efforts to conceal the fraud including paying extra to a business entity creation service for a socalled “privacy package” that would keep his name off official documents he also allegedly took steps to make crew capital look like a legitimate business the regulator said those included hiring a virtual receptionist service to answer phone calls to a tollfree number he’d set up though all the calls and voice messages were forwarded directly to swensen according to the sec “crew capital had no known employees other than swensen and no business operations other than the fraudulent efforts to induce victims to invest money” the sec said in its complaint the commission alleges that crew capital continues to violate the law by “disseminating false and misleading statements to investors” noting that its website is still up and running allowing investors to log in and check on their accounts “in fact no such accounts exist and the remaining investor money sent to crew capital is now being spent and otherwise dissipated by the defendants” the sec said in its complaint swensen worked as an advisor with wealth navigation advisors from 2018 through 2022 according to sec registration records the complaint alleges that he would pitch clients on crew capital during meetings about their portfolios and retirement plans telling them it was the safest type of investment in a “fourbucket” strategy involving investment categories of escalating risk swensen’s employment with wealth navigation advisors ended june 6—the same day he died swensen was discharged amid allegations of “failure to disclose outside business activity” according to the sec’s advisorregistration database wealth navigation advisors’ chief compliance officer did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment