Security

SEC accuses former ATM businessman Daryl Heller of funneling $185M from investors

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September 10, 2025

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Daryl Heller, owner of the now defunct Paramount Management Group, of funneling $185 million in investments for his personal use and other businesses.

The complaint alleges Heller used faked documents and ATMs to fool investors and enrich himself, according to a report by WITF.

Heller has been in legal turmoil since 2024 when he was sued by investors who claim he failed to pay them more than $65 million in fees. The SEC claims Heller's overall investment scheme cost investors more than $400 million. In particular, from 2017 to 2024, Paramount Management Group gave $397 million to investors on the ATM network even though the ATMs only generated $28.6 million in income. The rest allegedly came from other investors, short-term loans and cash advances.

"Because the ATM network did not generate sufficient profits to fund investor distributions, the Defendants primarily relied on new investor capital to cover the massive shortfall," the SEC stated.

Heller also allegedly created a fake ATM portal for investors which would be rigged to only select the best performing ATMs.

Other accusations include:

Heller did not operate as many ATMs as he claimed.
Only used a fraction of funds to purchase ATMs or only purchased damaged ATMs.
Sold 2,300 ATMs to investors at a more than 4,000% markup.

"Paramount and Heller provided bills of sale to Prestige containing serial numbers from the ATMs, without disclosing to investors that the ATMs were sitting unused in warehouses," the SEC complaint states. "These ATM sales to the ATM Funds generated more than $50 million for Heller and Paramount, which could be used to make payments to earlier investors in a Ponzi-like manner and/or to funnel money to Heller's other businesses."

Heller is also facing criminal charges for fraud. At the time of publication Heller had not responded to a request for comment.