SEC charges duo in $275 million water vending machine Ponzi scheme

The owner of a water machine vending company and a portfolio manager were allegedly behind a Ponzi-like scheme that raised more than $275 million, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Ryan Wear—owner of Washington state-based companies Water Station LLC and Creative Technologies, Inc.—and Jordan Chirico, a portfolio manager of a hedge fund that was part of Jefferies Financial Group’s Leucadia Asset Management, were charged with fraud, the SEC said Thursday in a press release. The two collaborated in a scheme from September 2016 to February 2024 to defraud more than 250 investors. 

The SEC alleged that Wear took investor money to purchase water vending machines to generate revenue, but those machines either never existed or had already been sold. The scheme brought in $165 million.