The former CEO and two other top executives of Texas-based Tricolor Holdings, LLC, were charged with orchestrating a multi-year scheme to defraud investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced.
The SEC brought the charges against Daniel Chu, Jerome Kollar, and Ameryn Seibold, the former CEO, CFO, and Senior Director of Finance, respectively, at Tricolor. They were accused of double pledging hundreds of millions of dollars of subprime auto loans to multiple asset-backed securities (ABS) offerings and lenders.
The SEC’s complaint states that from at least 2020 through Tricolor’s bankruptcy in September 2025, Tricolor raised more than $1.9 billion through ABS offerings while Tricolor, Chu, and Kollar made numerous false and misleading representations to investors about the lender’s overall financial health.
The defendants allegedly portrayed the company as financially sound despite knowing that Tricolor was facing significant liquidity constraints and struggling to fund its operations, according to the complaint.
The SEC said that in offering materials and meetings, Tricolor allegedly represented that the loans included in the ABS collateral pools were free and clear of any other liens when the defendants knew that many had been or would soon be double pledged.
The defendants are alleged to have deceived underwriters and investors. This included manipulating various loan metrics to make non-paying or defaulted loans appear current and therefore eligible for inclusion in the securitization pools, regulators said.
According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, more than $945 million of principal associated with the ABS offerings remained outstanding and payable to investors at the time of Tricolor’s bankruptcy.
Unable to maintain its access to loans, and unable to sustain its business without substantial cash, Tricolor filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on September 10, 2025.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Chu, Kollar, and Seibold in December 2025.
“We allege that these defendants defrauded investors based on bogus collateral and violated the integrity of our private credit markets,” said David Woodcock, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “Our team did a tremendous job bringing these charges and we appreciate the assistance of our partners at the Southern District of New York, the FBI and the FDIC Office of Inspector General.”
The SEC charged Chu, Kollar and Seibold with violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint also charges Chu with control person liability and all of the defendants with aiding and abetting liability.
The SEC is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against all the defendants as well as officer and director bars against Chu and Kollar.
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