The SEC took action Thursday against another alleged Ponzi scheme, obtaining an emergency court order to halt a $68 million fraud involving a Caribbean-based bank and its Swiss affiliate. The SEC alleges that the scheme targeted U.S. investors and misled them into believing they were putting their money in supposedly safe and secure CDs that purportedly offered returns that were up to 321% higher than legitimate bank-issued CDs. Alleging that some 375 investors were misled into buying these astronomical high-yield certificates of deposit, the SEC filed a complaint against William J. Wise of Raleigh, N.C., and Kristi M. Hoegel of Napa, Calif.

The SEC alleges that investor funds were not used for legitimate banking or investment activities. Instead, to create the appearance of a legitimate offshore investment, investors purchasing the CDs were instructed to deliver their investment checks to the offshore bank. The SEC alleges that the checks were then packaged and delivered to UT of S LLC’s office in Napa, Calif., where the checks were electronically deposited by a remote deposit machine into a UT of S, LLC account. The account, which is held at a U.S. financial institution, also received millions of dollars of investor funds via wire transfer. From that account, the SEC alleges, the defendants misappropriated a vast majority of the investor funds to enrich themselves and pay personal expenses, while making relatively small Ponzi payments to investors.

“As alleged in our complaint, the defendants disguised their Ponzi scheme as a legitimate offshore investment and made promises about exuberant returns that were just too good to be true,” said Rose Romero, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office in a statement. “This case demonstrates that investors need to be especially cautious when placing money with entities that may be outside the reach of U.S. regulators.”

Full SEC statement available here.