The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against an additional individual in connection with its ongoing investigation related to 1 Global Capital, LLC, a South Florida merchant cash advance company. The SEC previously charged 1 Global, its owner, and others with operating a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate millions of dollars from at least 3,600 investors. The SEC also previously charged nine of 1 Global's top sales agents, for various registration violations.

The SEC's complaint alleges that the defendant, Roy Y. Gagaza, one of 1 Global's top sales agents, unlawfully sold more than $10.8 million of 1 Global's unregistered securities to numerous investors. According to the complaint, Gagaza marketed 1 Global securities to investors as providing "peace of mind for some money in a volatile market" and claimed that the investments would achieve high single-digit or low double-digit annual returns. Gagaza earned approximately $403,000 in commissions on his sales, even though he was not registered as broker-dealer or associated with a registered broker-dealer.

The SEC charged Gagaza with violations of the securities registration provisions of Sections 5(a) and 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 and the broker-dealer registration provisions of Section 15(a)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Gagaza consented, without admitting or denying the allegations, to an injunction, disgorgement of $157,993 with prejudgment interest of $16,640, and a $30,000 civil penalty.

The SEC's investigation is being conducted by Gary Miller and Mark Dee, and supervised by Elisha L. Frank, Fernando Torres, and Glenn Gordon. The litigation is being led by Robert K. Levenson and Alice Sum and supervised by Andrew Schiff.