SEC charges former Tricolor CFO, CEO, and senior director of finance with fraud

It’s safe to say that getting charged with a fraud scheme connected to the billion-dollar collapse of a company is definitely…subprime.

On August 18, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former CEO, CFO, and senior director of finance of subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings for their roles in an alleged multiyear scheme to defraud investors.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that from “at least 2020” up until Tricolor’s bankruptcy in 2025, the auto lender’s CEO, Daniel Chu; CFO Jerome Kollar; and senior director of finance Ameryn Seibold made “numerous false and misleading representations to investors about the lender’s overall financial health, portraying the company as financially sound despite knowing that Tricolor was facing significant liquidity constraints and struggling to fund its operations.”

At the same time, the company raised over $1.9 billion via asset-backed securities offerings, and the SEC alleges Tricolor “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.”

“A forensic firm retained by the Tricolor bankruptcy trustee has concluded that, due to Tricolor’s double-pledging and fictitious loans, Tricolor’s borrowing base was inflated by at least $675 million,” the SEC complaint said.

The lawyer for former Tricolor CFO Chu, Matthew Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner, released a statement saying the SEC’s complaint was a “rehash of allegations that have already been made,” according to CNN. “Many of those allegations are inaccurate, as will be clear when the real facts come out. We look forward to a full and fair hearing in the courtroom,” the statement continued.

Attorneys for Jerome Kollar and Ameryn Seibold did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.

The SEC charged the three former executives with “violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,” while additionally charging Chu “with control person liability and all of the defendants with aiding and abetting liability.”

“We allege that these defendants defrauded investors based on bogus collateral and violated the integrity of our private credit markets,” David Woodcock, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a release, adding that the SEC appreciated “the assistance of our partners at the Southern District of New York, the FBI, and the FDIC Office of Inspector General.”

On that last point, these aren’t the only charges against former Tricolor executives. Back in December 2025, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Chu, Kollar, and Seibold, as well as Tricolor’s former COO, David Goodgame.

Kollar and Seibold entered guilty pleas to fraud charges, according to a December release from the US Attorney’s Office, which said that Kollar and Seibold were cooperating with the government.