The scheme that Christopher Parris has been accused of running leaned on more traditional Ponzi pitch tactics; the investments were said to be in businesses including financial services, insurance and real estate. Jaleen Dambrosio of Rochester entrusted to him her life savings — $600,000 — and for a few years received steady returns that assured her that she had made the right investment.

But Mr. Parris and an associate, Perry Santillo, were actually running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 600 investors, the commission said. The money Ms. Dambrosio had given him was gone, along with about $100 million that others had invested.

The men had spent lavishly on themselves, including commissioning a song that Mr. Santillo had performed at a party he threw at a Las Vegas nightclub, according to the commission. “Ten-thousand-dollar suits everywhere he rides,” the song went. “Pop the champagne in L.A., New York to Florida; buy another bottle just to spray it all over ya.”

“It was like somebody punched me in the face,” said Ms. Dambrosio, who had retired from Kodak, where she was a purchasing manager. “Everything stopped.”

Ms. Dambrosio — who has gone back to work, at a Walmart deli counter — lost an unusually large amount for a Ponzi victim. The average loss for Ponzi victims in the decade after Madoff was $150,000, according to an analysis of S.E.C. data, compared with $80,000 in the previous decade for non-Madoff scams.

Jane Naylon, who had taken music lessons from Mr. Parris’s father while growing up in the same Rochester neighborhood, contacted the S.E.C. after growing suspicious of Mr. Parris and Mr. Santillo. Some of the accusers have spoken to the F.B.I.

“Why are these guys walking around free?” asked Ms. Naylon, who declared bankruptcy after losing her $105,000 investment. “They froze their assets, but they still seem to have money.”