Armando Gutierrez Rosas, CEO of Aras Investment Business Group S.A.P.I. de C.V., a Mexico-based company, built an investment operation that specifically targeted members of the Mexican American community in the United States, using shared cultural and community ties to earn the trust of retail investors. From about March 2020 through November 2021, Gutierrez raised millions of dollars from investors for the purported purpose of investing in U.S. real estate and mining operations in Mexico, promising monthly returns as high as 10 percent. According to the SEC, none of the investor funds were actually used for investment purposes. Instead, Gutierrez was operating a Ponzi scheme and an affinity fraud, using new investor money to pay earlier investors and diverting funds to his personal expenses, including a $2.5 million mansion in Texas. On July 13, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered final judgment against Aras, Gutierrez, and four other individuals. Affinity fraud targeting a specific community also underpinned the cases against Leor Moshe of Capital Funding ASAP and the King Perry Ponzi.
The SEC’s complaint, filed September 21, 2023, charged Aras and Gutierrez with violating the registration and antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and the antifraud provisions of the Exchange Act, and charged Gutierrez with control person liability. Four additional individuals, Maria de Lourdes Tolentino Roque, Diayanira Rendon Trejo, Efren Quiroz Gardea, and Luis Quiroz Gardea, were charged with various securities law violations including aiding and abetting the fraud. The four individuals settled by consent in September 2023. The court entered a default judgment against Aras and Gutierrez on liability in November 2025, and the final judgment on remedies followed in July 2026.
10% Monthly Returns, Zero Actual Investment, and Affinity Fraud Targeting a Community
The scheme’s defining feature was its use of affinity fraud, a form of investment fraud that targets members of an identifiable group by exploiting the trust and sense of community within that group. Gutierrez, according to the SEC, focused on the Mexican American community, presenting Aras as an opportunity for community members to build wealth through investments in U.S. real estate and Mexican mining operations. The promised returns, as high as 10 percent per month, were extraordinary and unsustainable by any legitimate investment. Ten percent monthly compounds to well over 200 percent annually, a rate no real estate or mining operation could reliably produce. The complaint alleges that no investor funds were used for investment purposes at all, meaning the promised returns were never backed by any underlying business activity. The monthly payments that early investors received, which lent the scheme its credibility and encouraged others to join, came from the contributions of newer investors in the classic structure of a Ponzi scheme.
The affinity dimension made the fraud particularly effective. When investors see members of their own community receiving returns and vouching for an opportunity, the normal skepticism that might attend a promise of 10 percent monthly returns is lowered by trust in the community network. That trust is precisely what affinity fraud exploits. The SEC and investor protection agencies have repeatedly warned that affinity fraud targeting immigrant and ethnic communities is among the most damaging forms of investment fraud, because it spreads through trusted personal relationships and because victims may be reluctant to report fraud committed by members of their own community.
A $2.5M Texas Mansion and Disgorgement Across Six Defendants
The final judgment allocated financial liability across the six defendants. Aras and Gutierrez were held liable for disgorgement with prejudgment interest of $448,746 and $129,614 respectively on a joint and several basis, and Gutierrez was ordered to pay a civil penalty of $448,746. The four other individuals were ordered to disgorge amounts reflecting their respective roles: $1,256,372 against Maria de Lourdes Tolentino Roque, the largest individual amount; $242,080 against Diayanira Rendon Trejo; $313,985 against Efren Quiroz Gardea; and $139,542 against Luis Quiroz Gardea. The $2.5 million mansion in Texas that Gutierrez purchased with investor funds stands as the emblem of the scheme: money that community members were told would be invested in real estate and mining, used instead to buy the operator a luxury home. The affinity fraud that Aras represented is a recurring enforcement priority precisely because of how effectively it converts community trust into financial harm.
Conclusion
Armando Gutierrez Rosas told members of the Mexican American community that Aras would invest their money in U.S. real estate and Mexican mining and pay them up to 10 percent every month. He invested none of it. He ran a Ponzi scheme, paying early investors with the money of later ones, and he spent investor funds on a $2.5 million mansion in Texas. The trust that made the scheme work was the trust community members placed in one of their own. The court entered final judgment against Gutierrez, his company, and four other individuals in July 2026. The mansion was real. The investments were not.
