On April 27, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a final consent judgment against Aaron Verdugo and his wholly owned entities, Verdugo Enterprizes, LLC, doing business as BDaaSWorx, and BDaaS Inc., collectively referred to as BDX. The judgment, entered without Verdugo admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, permanently enjoins the defendants from violating federal securities laws, orders them to pay disgorgement of $5,537,678 plus prejudgment interest of $844,531 on a joint and several basis, imposes a five-year bar on Verdugo from participating in securities offerings, and requires him to pay a civil penalty of $236,000. The SEC filed its complaint on April 6, 2026, in the Southern District of Texas. The investigation was conducted by the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. The total obligation, disgorgement plus interest plus penalty, exceeds $6.6M — nearly the entire amount the defendants raised.
A Data Computation Company With Fortune 500 Clients That Did Not Exist and Infrastructure That Was Never Deployed
BDaaSWorx presented itself as a data-as-a-service company offering investors the opportunity to purchase physical computer chipset units at prices ranging from $8,300 to $12,300 each through what it called the BDX Power Program. According to the SEC’s complaint, BDX told investors the units would be deployed within its existing infrastructure to provide data computation and storage services, and that investors would receive monthly returns generated from payments BDX received from its customers. The pitch cited established relationships with several large Fortune 500 technology companies and represented that BDX was already providing those services to them at the time investors were being solicited.
None of it was true. BDX had no customer contracts. It was providing no data computation or storage services. It had no sources of revenue. Trustpilot reviews from investors who signed up as early as September 2022 show a consistent pattern: promised payouts never arriving, emails going unanswered, and sales representatives who left the company without explanation. One reviewer described requesting a refund after five months of missed payments and receiving no response.
Monthly Returns Stopped Within Months of Launch and the Satisfaction Guarantee Was Honored for Only Four Investors
BDX compounded the false revenue claims with two specific promises the complaint identifies as independently material. The first was the monthly return structure, which Verdugo represented as being funded by customer payments. The second was a satisfaction guarantee, under which investors could receive a full refund of their investment amount, less any returns already received, if they were dissatisfied for any reason. Both promises collapsed quickly.
By early 2023, just months after BDX began raising investor funds in August 2022, Verdugo and BDX had ceased paying monthly returns to nearly all investors. Of the approximately 200 investors who participated, only four received satisfaction guarantee refunds. Those four payments were made using other investors’ funds, making the arrangement functionally indistinguishable from a Ponzi structure. The SEC’s complaint charges violations under the negligence-based antifraud provisions of Sections 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act and Rule 10b-5(b), which cover materially false statements in connection with securities offerings.
$6.1M of $6.67M Raised Went to Unauthorized Expenses and Verdugo’s Own Compensation
Of the $6.67M raised from investors, Verdugo is alleged to have misappropriated at least $6.1M. The complaint states that most of those funds were used to pay unauthorized operational expenses and unauthorized compensation to Verdugo himself. The gap between what was raised and what was allegedly misappropriated, approximately $570,000, represents the only portion of investor funds not directly diverted to Verdugo or unauthorized costs.
Verdugo described himself publicly on LinkedIn as a serial entrepreneur and AI developer committed to changing the world with innovative technology, and listed his education at Arizona State University. Arizona court records show a 2021 civil debt judgment entered against Aaron E. Verdugo in Maricopa County in favor of a creditors’ collection firm, suggesting personal financial strain in the period immediately before BDaaSWorx launched. BDaaSWorx was registered as a business in Houston, Texas, and listed with the Better Business Bureau without accreditation.
A Five-Year Bar and a $6.6M Judgment That Closes the BDX Chapter
The consent judgment imposes a five-year bar on Verdugo from participating in the offer or sale of securities, a limited rather than permanent prohibition reflecting the SEC’s choice to charge under negligence-based rather than intent-based antifraud provisions. The joint and several disgorgement and interest obligation of $6,382,209 covers the bulk of investor losses. The $236,000 civil penalty is an additional consequence beyond the disgorgement of profits. The SEC’s litigation release notes that investors in BDaaSWorx can reach out to [email protected]. The offering was unregistered throughout the period it was conducted.
Conclusion
Aaron Verdugo raised $6.67M from 200 investors between August 2022 and January 2024 on the strength of Fortune 500 client relationships that did not exist, a data infrastructure that was never deployed, and a satisfaction guarantee that was honored for four people out of two hundred. He spent $6.1M of it. The consent judgment closes his ability to raise money from the public for five years, orders him to return nearly all of it, and leaves 200 investors waiting on a disgorgement fund to be distributed by the court. The BDaaSWorx website still describes a company committed to empowering your data-driven success.
