On October 25, 2021, the Commission filed a Complaint (the “Complaint”) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against investment advisor, Ann M. Vick (“Vick” or the “Defendant”) for violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The Complaint alleged that, beginning approximately in August 2018, Vick directly and through AMV Investments LLC, a company that she controlled, raised approximately $3.2 million from more than two dozen investors by falsely telling them that she was a successful stock options trader and promising annual interest payments of 60%-120%. The Complaint also alleged that Vick convinced prospective investors to become her clients by making these materially false and misleading statements, and she continued to mislead prospective investors by maintaining she generated substantial and consistent profits, even after losing a substantial amount of her investors’ money by trading stock options. In order to maintain the illusion that she generated profits for her investors, the Defendant deceptively used new investor funds to make the principal and interest payments to her existing clients. The Complaint also alleged that she misappropriated investor money for her personal use and comingled investor funds with funds in her personal account. See Complaint.

On October 27, 2021, the Court entered a final judgment against Vick. The Defendant was ordered to pay disgorgement of $570,150, prejudgment interest of $27,929, and a civil penalty in the amount of $570,150 to the Commission. The Commission was ordered to hold all funds, together with interest and income earned thereon (collectively, the “Fund”), pending further order of the Court. See Vick’s Final Judgment.

The Distribution Fund consists of $871,050.33 paid pursuant to the Defendant’s judgment for distribution to injured investors. Any additional outstanding monies received from the Defendant will be added to the Fund for distribution.

On October 25, 2022, the Court established a Fair Fund; appointed Keshia Ellis, a Commission employee, as the Distribution Agent; appointed Heffler, Radetich & Saitta, LLP as the Tax Administrator to fulfill the tax obligations of the Fund; and authorized the payment of taxes and fees from the Fair Fund without returning to the Court. See the Court's Order.

On June 6, 2023, the Commission filed a motion to approve a distribution plan, together with the distribution plan (the “Plan”). See the Commission’s Motion and the Plan.

On July 5, 2023, the Court entered an Order approving the Plan. See the Court’s Order.

The Plan provides that the distribution of the Fair Fund shall be made to those investors who purchased promissory notes from the Defendants or AMV Investments LLC between August 1, 2018 and January 31, 2021 and suffered a loss, as calculated by the methodology used in the Plan of Allocation, attached as Exhibit A, to the Plan.

For more information, please contact the Commission:

Office of Distributions
Email: ENFOfficeofDistributions@sec.gov