Ian Bell, 35, a Denver resident, was ordered to pay disgorgement and prejudgment interest totaling more than $438,000 following a final consent judgment entered February 23, 2026, in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil enforcement action charging him with securities fraud. From July 2020 through March 2023, Bell raised more than $1.3M from at least 29 investors, including professional athletes in Colorado, by sending them fabricated trading account screenshots and misrepresenting his performance. The screenshots were not from brokerage accounts — they were generated using a calculator app.
Bell lost or squandered nearly all of the investors’ money, in many cases within days of receiving it, kept hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal use, and then lied to investors about his plans to repay them. A parallel criminal indictment was unsealed the same day as the SEC’s civil charges in December 2024. Bell pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and agreed to serve three years in federal prison. The SEC’s disgorgement and prejudgment interest are deemed satisfied by the criminal forfeiture order.
Bell Spread the Fraud Through Denver Social Circles After Failing as a Trader on His Own Money
Bell’s scheme did not begin as a deliberate fraud operation. Bell spent approximately six months losing his own money trading stocks before deciding in July 2020 to begin investing money on behalf of friends in his Denver social circle. The pitch was that he had learned from his losses and could now trade safely and successfully for others.
The reality was the opposite. Bell was, in the words of the SEC’s complaint, “a failure as an investor and trader” who ultimately lost all investor money he traded, frequently within days of receiving it. To hide this, he fabricated performance records using a calculator app and sent those screenshots to investors as evidence of trading gains. One investor, identified in court documents as Investor 5, reportedly showed friends that a $22,000 investment had grown to $160,000 on paper. Word spread through Denver cafes, restaurants, and social gatherings. Those friends referred their own family and friends to Bell, who then referred others, each referral built on the false foundation of fabricated screenshots. Prior to launching the scheme, Bell had worked briefly as an independent contractor at a Boulder investment firm between 2018 and 2019, but had no trading or investment authority there and was no longer affiliated with the firm when the fraud began.
The Victims Included Professional Athletes Who Had No Reason to Question a Friend’s Referral
Among Bell’s 29 investors were professional athletes in Colorado, who are not identified by name in the SEC’s complaint or criminal indictment. Ryan Lewis, a former NFL player who now serves as assistant defensive backs coach at the Colorado School of Mines, filed a separate civil lawsuit against Bell. Lewis alleges he received an $11,000 payout at some point, one of the few investors to receive any money back, and believes that payment was funded by other investors’ capital rather than trading profits, describing it as a Ponzi payment.
The structure of the investor network reflected how Bell’s scheme scaled without advertising: personal trust within a social circle, amplified by fabricated evidence. The SEC noted that several of Bell’s investors referred family and friends specifically because of the false statements Bell had made.
Criminal Charges Covered 18 Counts Across Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, and Money Laundering
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado unsealed a federal grand jury indictment against Bell on December 9, 2024, the same day the SEC filed its civil complaint. The indictment charged Bell with eight counts of wire fraud, five counts of mail fraud, and five counts of money laundering — 18 total counts arising from the same scheme. The criminal investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Bell pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering under a plea agreement and agreed to serve three years in federal prison. The SEC’s litigation release noted that the disgorgement of $339,848.84 and prejudgment interest of $98,570.64 ordered in the civil case are deemed satisfied by the forfeiture order entered in the parallel criminal proceeding. Bell is permanently enjoined from securities fraud violations and barred from participating in the offer or sale of any securities except for his own personal account.
Conclusion
The Bell case is a reminder that investment fraud does not require institutional cover or complex financial instruments. Bell raised $1.3M from people who trusted him because their friends trusted him, armed with screenshots that any phone calculator could generate. The scheme ran for nearly three years before federal regulators and criminal prosecutors closed it simultaneously. Bell is heading to federal prison. His investors, who lost nearly everything they put in, will recover through the criminal forfeiture process — a slower and incomplete path back from losses that were spent or lost in some cases within days of being handed over.
Editor’s Correction — May 5, 2026: An earlier version of this article identified Ian Bell in the headline and opening paragraph as being “of Black Swift Group.” That reference has been removed. Black Swift Group, LLC is a Boulder, Colorado investment firm where Bell worked briefly as an independent contractor between 2018 and 2019. The fraud described in this article occurred between July 2020 and March 2023 — after Bell had left the firm. Black Swift Group was not mentioned in the SEC complaint, the DOJ indictment, or the final judgment, and has no connection to Bell’s criminal or civil violations. We regret the misleading characterization and have corrected the article accordingly.
