Litigation Releases (Charles T. Lawrence, Jr., Landes Prive, LLC; Landes and Compagnie Trust Prive a/k/a Landes and Compagnie Trst Prive KB; HekYeah, LLC, Justin D. Smith and[...]

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26400 / September 12, 2025

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Charles T. Lawrence, Jr. et. al., No. 2:23-cv-00550-PP (E.D. Wis. filed May 1, 2023)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment by Consent Against Relief Defendant in Offering Fraud Case

On August 25, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a final judgment against relief defendant Justin D. Smith, of Ohio, in a litigated action involving an alleged offering fraud orchestrated by defendant Charles T. Lawrence, Jr.

According to the SEC's complaint, Lawrence engaged in a scheme to defraud prospective investors and misappropriated at least $4.89 million for his personal benefit. As alleged, Lawrence misrepresented that he was the managing director of a defunct Swedish entity Landes and Compagnie Trust Prive KB ("Swedish Landes KB") and that, among other things, the investment contracts he offered would generate weekly investment returns of 25% to 100%, and the investors' funds would not be at risk. The complaint alleges that Lawrence directed investors to send their money directly to an account in the name of Landes Prive, LLC, an entity he controlled, and then misappropriated almost all of the investor funds to make lavish personal purchases. In addition, the complaint alleges that Lawrence sent at least $689,000 to five relief defendants, including Smith's entity Landes and Compagnie Trust Prive aka Landes and Compagnie Trst [sic] Prive KB ("Landes KB").

Without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint, Smith consented to the entry of a final judgment, ordering Smith to pay disgorgement of his ill-gotten gains totaling $297,700 plus $38,371 of prejudgment interest, jointly and severally with his entity, relief defendant Landes KB. The Commission had previously obtained a final default judgment against Landes KB for the same amounts on October 31, 2024, and the court's most recent ruling also modified Landes KB's final judgment to make the amounts ordered against it joint and several with Smith.

Previously, on October 31, 2024, the SEC obtained a final judgment by consent against relief defendant Brenda M. Bisner, ordering her to pay disgorgement of $183,951 plus prejudgment interest of $18,940; and final default judgments against relief defendant HekYeah, LLC, ordering it to pay disgorgement of $9,900 plus prejudgment interest of $1,392, and relief defendant Landes Prive, LLC, ordering it to pay disgorgement of $3,588,713 plus prejudgment interest of $402,534. The SEC's litigation against Lawrence is ongoing.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Matthew T. Wissa and supervised by Jeffrey A. Shank of the SEC's Chicago Regional Office. BeLinda I. Mathie leads the litigation.