Litigation Releases (Joel B. Sofia)

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26463 / January 23, 2026

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Joel B. Sofia,No. 26-civ-632 (D.N.J. filed Jan. 20, 2026)

SEC Charges New Jersey Resident in Alleged Investment Advisor Fraud

On January 20, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged New Jersey resident Joel B. Sofia in connection with an alleged investment advisor fraud involving his advisory business, WOLO Wealth Inc.

According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Sofia, an unregistered investment adviser, made material misrepresentations to at least three advisory clients from at least July 2019 to January 2023. The SEC's complaint alleges that in soliciting the clients, Sofia lied about his professional background and experience in the finance industry, falsely guaranteed that the clients would not lose money, and deceived at least two clients regarding his purported development and use of proprietary trading software. The SEC's complaint further alleges that Sofia convinced his clients to provide him with direct access to their brokerage accounts so that he could place trades on their behalf. The SEC alleges that, by January 2023, Sofia's fraud had caused total client losses of more than $1.6 million.

The SEC's complaint charges Sofia with violating Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and seeks permanent injunctive relief and civil penalties against Sofia.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Karen M. Lee, Melissa A. Coppola, Christopher J. Dunnigan, and Sandeep Satwalekar, and supervised by Thomas P. Smith, Jr., all of the SEC's New York Regional Office. The litigation will be led by Ms. Lee and Mr. Dunnigan and supervised by Daniel Loss.