Satish Appalakutty; Lorven Funds; Lorven Advisors LLC; Vistalytics Inc.
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26472 / January 29, 2026
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Satish Appalakutty, et al., No. 3:26-cv-00917 (N.D. Cal. filed Jan. 29, 2026)
SEC Charges Bay Area Entrepreneur and His Business Entities in Alleged Multimillion Dollar Ponzi-Like Scheme
On January 29, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Milpitas, California resident Satish Appalakutty and his entities, Lorven Funds and Lorven Advisors LLC, alleging that they defrauded at least 100 investors of at least $37 million.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from the beginning of 2019 through March 2024, the defendants orchestrated a Ponzi-like scheme in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Appalakutty met and solicited many of his investors through a Hindu temple he attended. As alleged, the defendants misrepresented to investors that they would use their funds to purchase stocks of well-known public companies at a discount, purchase stocks of private pre-IPO companies, or otherwise invest the money to generate returns for investors, and the defendants falsely promised investors minimum rates of return ranging from 8% to 62.5% annually. In reality, however, the SEC’s complaint alleges that the purported investment opportunities were fictitious, and the defendants did not purchase any stocks of public or pre-IPO companies or carry out any investment activity on behalf of investors. Instead, Appalakutty allegedly used new investors’ money to make Ponzi-like payments to prior investors, and misappropriated approximately $6.7 million of investor money for his personal benefit, including using approximately $4.4 million for his software startup, Vistalytics Inc.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, charges Appalakutty, Lorven Funds, and Lorven Advisors with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC seeks permanent injunctions, including conduct-based injunctions, against the defendants, and disgorgement with prejudgment interest on a joint and several basis. Additionally, the SEC seeks civil penalties from Appalakutty and an order permanently enjoining him from acting as or being associated with any investment adviser. The complaint also names Vistalytics Inc. as a relief defendant and seeks disgorgement of its ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Hannah Cho and Ellen Chen and was supervised by David Zhou, Rahul Kolhatkar, and Jason H. Lee, all of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office. The litigation will be led by Ms. Cho and Jason M. Bussey.