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Matthias Knab, Opalesque: As of May 12, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Reign Financial International, the investment adviser Berone Capital, and several individuals of orchestrating a $26 million investment fraud. The complaint, filed May 7, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges the defendants ran three fraudulent high-yield programs between March 2021 and October 2022 and used investor money for luxury cars, jewelry, private jet travel, and sports tickets rather than for any legitimate investment.
The defendants and the three programs
The SEC names two sets of defendants. The "Reign Defendants" are Reign Financial International, LLC and Reign Financial International, Inc., CEO Giorgio Johnson, COO Gary Mills, and Miami resident Patrick Allen. The "Berone Defendants" are Berone Capital, LLC and its two owners and employees, Jeremiah Beguesse and Fabian Stone. Berone was a state-registered investment adviser with active registrations in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas during the relevant period, and reported just over $4 million in assets under management on its June 9, 2023 Form ADV.
According to the complaint, the defendants offered three programs that bore the hallmarks of a classic prime bank scheme:
- The Compass Program and the PBL & 5Js Program, both purportedly administered by Allen.
- The Reign Program, marketed by the Reign Defendants, who claimed they would use Allen's contacts and a bank trading platform to generate returns.
Investors were told that their principal would sit safely in a custodial or hedge fund account for a few weeks before being returned, after which the platform would generate weekly returns of 75 to 125 percent. One investor was promised a 300 percent monthly return on a $20 million stake. The SEC alleges that none of this was ever going to happen: the Reign Defendants had never been introduced to Allen's supposed contacts, did not know their identities, and had no reasonable basis to believe they could meet the terms they were selling.
How the $20 million allegedly disappeared
Under the agreements governing the PBL & 5Js and Reign Programs, investor funds were to be held in a private hedge fund called the Berone Capital Fund, LP, managed by Berone, Beguesse, and Stone. The fund documents prohibited the money from being depleted, used, or spent on anything other than the investment program.
The SEC tells a different story. Before a $20 million investor wire landed in the fund's account, the cash balance was roughly $260,000. Within days, the agency alleges, Berone began moving money out. Approximately $850,000 was used to purchase corporate bonds naming Beguesse and Stone as beneficiaries. Additional funds went to two luxury cars (one memo line referenced a Rolls Royce), Atlanta Hawks tickets, private jet travel, and jewelry. Roughly $30,000 allegedly went to Beguesse's girlfriend to buy a car. None of the money went into a legitimate trading platform, the SEC says, because no such platform existed.
Due diligence that "typically consisted of little more than an internet search"
For compliance officers, the SEC's account of Reign's vetting process is striking. The agency says Reign's due diligence on the program providers "typically consisted of little more than an internet search." The firm did not run background checks, did not confirm track records, and did not speak with the banks that were supposedly running the trading platforms. Despite this, investors were sold on "carefully crafted financial strategies" and trade platforms that, in the SEC's telling, the firm did not actually have.
Undisclosed conflicts and a convicted COO
The complaint also describes a tangle of undisclosed personal ties. Beguesse and Allen were friends and members of the same fraternal organization, and Beguesse had previously served as Allen's financial advisor at another broker-dealer. Between June and November 2021, Allen gave Beguesse and Berone roughly $350,000 in what the complaint characterizes as "gifts" - some of which, the SEC alleges, came from money Allen had misappropriated from the Compass Program.
The SEC notes that Mills, Reign's COO, previously served a three-year jail sentence from 2005 to 2008 for conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with a mortgage loan scheme, and lost his law licenses as a result.
Charges and relief sought
The Reign Defendants and Allen are charged with violations of Sections 17(a)(1) and (a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c) - the scheme-liability prongs rather than the misstatement prongs. Reign, Johnson, and Mills also face aiding-and-abetting claims tied to Allen's violations, and Johnson is separately charged as a control person under Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act.
The Berone Defendants are charged with violations of Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 for breaching their fiduciary duties to the Berone Capital Fund.
Against all defendants, the SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, civil penalties, and an officer-and-director bar against Johnson.
Other entities named "Reign Capital" - what this case is not about
Because the Reign name is shared by several unrelated firms, it is worth drawing a clear line between the defendants in this SEC action and other legitimate entities operating under similar names:
- Reign Capital Limited - a UK-based entity operating under the umbrella of London & Eastern LLP and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
- Reign Capital Holdings LLC - a privately-owned Oklahoma City-based investment company focused on energy, real estate, and technology.
- Reign Capital, L.P. - an inactive Delaware limited partnership that ceased operations in 2012.
None of these firms is alleged to be connected in any way to Reign Financial International or Berone Capital, the defendants in the SEC's May 7, 2026 complaint.
The SEC's allegations have not been adjudicated; the defendants have not yet filed a response in court.
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