The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Michael Peter Gianoplus, Traci Leigh Bransford-Marquis, and Gianoplus Consortia LLC a/k/a Gianoplus Consortia, LLC (GC).

The SEC’s complaint, submitted at the Florida Middle District Court on April 7, 2026, alleges that from no later than March 2021 through at least January 2025, Michael Peter Gianoplus and Traci Leigh Bransford-Marquis – acting through GC – misappropriated at least $2.4 million from investors who participated in a purported high-yield investment program (HYIP) offered through GC.

During that period, GC raised more than $6 million from at least eight investors, in the United States and elsewhere, through the offer and sale of securities in the HYIP. In connection with the offer and sale of those securities, the defendants allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud investors and engaged in practices that operated as a fraud or deceit upon those investors.

The HYIP purported to provide investors with access to exclusive overseas platforms trading obscure financial instruments with the promise of extraordinary short-term profits. Gianoplus developed the HYIP and personally sourced the investments. Bransford served as the escrow attorney and paymaster, and the agreements between GC and the investors provided that principal funds from investors would be “safe haven” and “protected” in Bransford’s Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (“IOLTA”) with “sub” accounts to be established to receive profits from the investments on behalf of the investors.

The agreements stated that investors’ principal funds would be returned at the conclusion of the HYIP, and GC would be paid a share of the profits generated on the investments, with Bransford in turn being paid her fee from GC’s profit share.

Despite the promotional hype of the HYIP, it did not yield any profits on the investments during the relevant period. Nevertheless, the defendants still paid themselves in excess of $2.4 million in principal funds from investors, in direct contravention of the agreements and notwithstanding that the defendants had led investors to believe their principal would be protected.

Moreover, in some instances, principal funds from investors were not invested through the HYIP at all. Instead, the defendants simply retained and misappropriated the entirety of those funds for their own personal use. And when confronted by investors with requests for status updates or redemptions, the defendants concealed the misappropriation through a series of excuses and other deceptive acts.

The SEC accuses the defendants of violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)]; and Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) [15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) and 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5].

The Commission requests that the Court: (I) permanently restrain and enjoin the defendants from violating the federal securities laws, and from engaging in certain further conduct; (ii) direct GC and Gianoplus to pay disgorgement with prejudgment interest on a joint and several basis; (iii) direct Bransford to pay disgorgement with prejudgment interest; and (iv) direct each defendant to pay a civil monetary penalty.