He Promised 15% Returns. Now Over 300 Investors Lost $60 Million.

For years, Paul Regan presented himself as someone worth trusting with your life savings. He had the credentials on paper, the investment vehicles with compelling names, and a sales network that reached deep into retirement planning communities across the United States. What he actually had was a Ponzi scheme, and on March 14, 2026, he stood before a federal court and admitted it.

Regan, whose full name is Henry Paul Regan Jr., pleaded guilty to three felony counts of securities fraud in connection with fraudulent investment products marketed through two entities he controlled: Next Level Holdings and Yield Wealth. Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alleged that he defrauded more than 300 retail investors out of at least $50 million through materially false and misleading representations about the nature, safety, and profitability of his offerings.

The scheme operated between approximately 2022 and late 2024. Next Level Holdings sold promissory notes pitched as a vehicle for financing Colombian mining operations, with investors told their capital would be used to purchase unrefined precious metals at discounted prices and sell them to international refineries at a profit. Yield Wealth, meanwhile, was presented as an alternative financial institution and healthcare investment vehicle, claiming returns would be generated by purchasing Affordable Care Act health insurance policies that produced federally guaranteed monthly payments. Regan promised annual returns of anywhere from 10.5% to 15.5%, with full insurance protection and zero risk of loss. However, none of those claims were true.

According to federal investigators and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, investor funds were not deployed into Colombian mining or healthcare policies. Instead, the money was funneled in a pattern typical of Ponzi operations: newer investor deposits were used to pay the supposed returns owed to earlier participants. Approximately $7.8 million was paid out in commissions to a network of insurance brokers and salespeople Regan had recruited to promote the investments. A further $22 million or more was redirected to bank accounts tied to an electronics goods trader and a pet products retailer, with the bulk of those funds subsequently wired overseas to dozens of companies presenting themselves as import/export businesses, the majority of which were based in China.

To make the fraud more convincing, Regan provided investors with forged insurance documents and surety bond agreements that falsely claimed their principal was protected. He also made fabricated professional claims about his own background, including stating on LinkedIn that he had worked at Goldman Sachs. When the Wall Street Journal contacted the firm during its 2024 investigation into Regan's activities, Goldman Sachs confirmed it had no record of his employment. Regan's LinkedIn profile was deleted shortly after that inquiry. He similarly claimed to hold a Chartered Financial Analyst designation, a claim the CFA Institute denied. He also told investors that Yield's securities offering had been approved by the SEC, which it had not.

What made the case particularly alarming for regulators was not just its scale, but Regan's documented history of misconduct. He had been barred from associating with FINRA members since 2004 for failing to respond to regulatory requests. A 2005 cease and desist order from Oregon financial regulators included allegations of theft and forgery. In 2017, he pleaded guilty in Florida to one count of organized fraud involving promissory notes that also promised guaranteed returns, and was sentenced to ten years of probation, which expired in 2024. Despite all of this, he continued operating, building a fresh investor base and collecting tens of millions of dollars.

Both companies shut down in late 2024 as scrutiny mounted. When a media outlet published a critical piece about Yield in August 2024, Regan reportedly instructed his sales team to continue promoting the products and dismiss the coverage. Shortly afterward, both entities ceased all communications with investors, who were left facing losses exceeding $50 million in total across the two funds.

Regan was arrested in Florida in September 2025 after being removed from Colombia, where he had been living. The charges against him include conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud, and aggravated identity theft, each carrying maximum prison terms of up to 20 years for the most serious counts. He was scheduled for sentencing in June 2026.

The SEC has filed a parallel civil complaint seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and financial penalties. Roughly two-thirds of the investors who lost money had channeled their retirement savings through individual retirement accounts, compounding the personal devastation of the fraud.

Authorities have emphasized that investors who placed their money in Next Level or Yield on the recommendation of a financial advisor may have grounds to pursue compensation claims against those advisors, particularly if due diligence was not properly conducted before the products were recommended.