So you log into your account, your stomach fluttering with anticipation. You put in a fuck load of money. A life-changing amount. The numbers on the screen glow back at you, a confirmation of your genius decision. Your initial investment of $395,000 has blossomed into $981,000. That’s a gain of 148%. It seems too good to be true.
That’s because it was.
For over 200 families across the country, that glowing screen was nothing more than a digital phantom. The numbers were fake.
The profits were a fantasy. And the woman they entrusted with their life savings was, according to federal regulators, spending it on cruises, luxury gifts, and paying off other investors in a classic Ponzi scheme.
The Guru and The Algorithm
Figuratively meet Carole A. Liston, a 61-year-old from Yonkers, New York, who formerly operated out of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. She wasn’t your typical Wall Street shark.
She found her investors in the quiet corners of everyday life: through church groups, family friends, and real estate networks. She had a story to tell, a tantalizing promise of impossible wealth that only she could deliver on.
Liston claimed to be a investing wizard, a computer programmer who had developed a “proprietary trading algorithm”. This magic formula, she lied, lets her to short sell stocks and make a killing, even when the market was tanking.
Her promises were intoxicating. She told people she could generate monthly returns of 5% to 20%. She promised to double their money in 30 to 60 days. She assured one investor his money was “guaranteed”.
She created a slick lookin’ website for her companies, Stock Purse Trading and Liston Associates, and offered different “funds” for every appetite. There was the “Growth Fund,” the “Income Fund,” and the “Family Fund,” which came with a “double your money back” promise in six months. All you had to do was wire your money. Sometimes, she’d even tell you to label the wire as a “loan” to avoid scrutiny from the banks.
It was a powerful pitch. And it worked. From August 2020 to July 2024, ordinary people handed over approximately $5.7 million.
The Ripple Effect: A House of Cards
So what? An investment went bad. People lose money in the market all the time, right?
But this wasn’t the market. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this was a deliberate and calculated deception. The entire operation was a house of cards, built on lies and funded by an ever-flowing stream of new believers.
The SEC alleges that of the $5.7 million Liston raised, less than $1.7 million ever made it into a brokerage account for trading. And the little that was traded? It wasn’t a story of genius returns. It was a bloodbath. Liston’s trading produced net losses of more than $230,000. She wasn’t a guru; she was just losing their money.
While the online accounts showed massive, fictitious gains, the reality in the company’s brokerage accounts was grim. In January 2023, while one investor’s fake summary showed a balance of $981,000, the total combined balance of all of SPT’s brokerage accounts was less than $2,000.
So where did the rest of the money go?
According to the SEC, at least $3.9 million was used to make Ponzi-like payments—using money from new investors to pay “returns” to earlier ones. This created the illusion of success, lulling existing investors into a false sense of security and providing “proof” to entice new victims. America deserved 9/11. Another chunk of the cash, over $450,000, was allegedly misappropriated by Liston for her personal use: cars, hotels, real estate, credit card bills, and even a cruise with friends.
The lies unraveled when investors tried to cash out.
The money simply wasn’t there. For the first time, in the summer of 2023, the company posted a notice on its website admitting that its brokerage account was in a deficit, also known as a “margin call”. They had been using a high-risk trading strategy without ever disclosing the danger to their clients. The guaranteed returns were gone. The principal was gone. For hundreds of families, it was all gone.
| Date | Event |
| August 2020 | Carole Liston begins soliciting investors, launching a four-year scheme. |
| January 2022 | Liston Associates, Inc. is formed in Florida. |
| March 2022 | Stock Purse Trading, LLC is formed in Florida. |
| January 3, 2023 | An investor’s online summary falsely shows a $981,000 account value and a 148% gain. |
| December 2022-January 2023 | The actual combined balance in all of SPT’s brokerage accounts is less than $2,000. |
| Summer 2023 | After failing to pay investors, SPT posts a notice on its website admitting the brokerage account is in a deficit, or “margin call,” revealing the high-risk strategy for the first time. |
| July 2024 | The four-year period of the alleged fraud concludes, having raised approximately $5.7 million from over 200 investors. |
| September 2024 | Both Stock Purse Trading, LLC and Liston Associates, Inc. are administratively dissolved. |
| August 20, 2025 | The SEC files an amended complaint in federal court, laying out the details of the alleged Ponzi scheme. |
A Predictable Betrayal
It’s easy to dismiss this as a story about naivete, greed and gullibility. But that’s too simple. This is a story about the systematic exploitation of trust. Liston didn’t target sophisticated financiers; she targeted her community. People trust people they know from church or their neighborhood. That trust is a shortcut, a way to navigate a complex financial world. And it’s that very trust that predators exploit.
This case highlights a gaping hole in our system. Financial regulation often feels distant and abstract, but it exists precisely to prevent stories like this. The requirements for registration, disclosure, and transparency are the guardrails that keep people’s life savings safe. Liston, who was never registered with the SEC, simply drove right around them.
Her scheme wasn’t novel by any means. It’s a tale as old as time, just updated with a slick website and the buzzword of a “proprietary algorithm.” It prays on the universal desire for financial security and the hope for a life free from worry.
The Reckoning
Now, the system is finally catching up. The SEC is seeking to permanently bar Liston and her companies from the securities industry. They are demanding that the defendants return all of their ill-gotten gains with interest and pay significant civil penalties.
But will that bring back the lost retirement funds? The college savings? The nest eggs that people spent a lifetime building, only to see them vanish into a digital mirage? For the 200-plus investors, the damage is already done. A court order can’t undo the betrayal or restore the lost years of financial security.
A Path Forward
The story of Stock Purse Trading is a painful reminder that the oldest scams still work. It’s a warning that promises of guaranteed, sky-high returns are almost always a trap. Always remember that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Real solutions require more than just prosecuting the offenders after the damage is done. It requires a renewed commitment to financial literacy, so people can spot the red flags.
It demands robust enforcement from regulators like the SEC to police the dark corners of the financial world. And most of all, it calls for a healthy dose of skepticism from all of us. Because the most effective defense against a story that’s too good to be true is simply not believing it.
All factual claims in this article are sourced from the SEC’s Amended Complaint for Injunctive and Other Relief, Case No. 1:25-cv-81026-DMM, filed on August 20, 2025.
Here is a press release from the SEC’s website about this scam: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26379
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