Market Manipulation. Search

Paid stock promotion enforcement actions

This library records 219 enforcement actions tagged paid stock promotion. Paid stock promotion is publicising a security in exchange for compensation, which is lawful only if the fact of payment, the payer and the amount are fully disclosed under Securities Act Section 17(b).

Actions are listed newest first. Each row links to a case page carrying the regulator's own release and, where one was published, the complaint. For how this technique works and what statute it engages, read the paid stock promotion technique page.

Actions
100
Total penalties
$17m
Median penalty
$504k
Largest
$6m
Criminal parallel
23%
Action Agency Filed Penalty Status
SEC v. Joshua A. Weiss (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-07-10 judgment
SEC v. Stephen J. Czarnik (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-06-29 judgment
SEC v. Vestech Partners LLC and others (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-04-08 settled
SEC v. Justin Sun, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., Rainberry, Inc., and DeAndre Cortez Way (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-03-05 judgment
SEC v. George John Drazenovic (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-12-19 judgment
SEC v. Andrew Scott Corbman (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-12-03 judgment
SEC v. FibroGen, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-09-05 settled
SEC v. Diana Mae Fernandez (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-07-11 judgment
SEC v. Medallion Financial Corp., Andrew Murstein, Lawrence Meyers, and Ichabod’s Cranium, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-06-06 $3m judgment
SEC v. Marshall E. Melton and Integrated Consulting & Management, LLC (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-04-24 unknown
SEC v. Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-04-07 settled
CFTC v. Roberto Pulido (paid stock promotion, 2025) CFTC 2025-01-27 $685k judgment
SEC v. Michael Caridi (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-01-08 $180k judgment
SEC v. John S. Clayton and others (insider trading, 2024) SEC 2024-12-11 filed
SEC v. Destiny Robotics Corp., et al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-10-15 settled
SEC v. Marco Babini, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-09-27 judgment
SEC v. WM Technology, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-09-24 settled
SEC v. Meta Materials, Inc. ( and others (engineered short squeeze, 2024) SEC 2024-06-25 $1m settled
SEC v. Giguiere et al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-06-13 $875k judgment
SEC v. Ian Balina (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-05-23 filed
SEC v. Ahmed Alomari and MCM Consulting (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-05-03 filed
SEC v. George Stubos, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-04-15 judgment
SEC v. Matthew Nicosia, William Reininger, Fabrizio Di Carlo, and Ronald Touchard (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-03-28 $100k judgment
SEC v. Lordstown Motors Corp. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-02-29 settled
SEC v. Christian Fernandez (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-02-20 settled
SEC v. J. Jeremy Barbera, et. al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-01-18 $100k judgment
SEC v. Prosperity, Investments & Lending, LLC (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-01-18 settled
SEC v. Jonathan Farber, Aarif Jamani, Brian Keasberry (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-01-16 filed
SEC v. Carnovale, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2024) SEC 2024-01-03 judgment
CFTC v. Lim (paid stock promotion, 2023) CFTC 2023-11-21 $1.5m judgment
SEC v. Bruce Schoengood, Medifirst Solutions, Inc., and Joshua Tyrell (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-10-27 judgment
CFTC v. Florida Man and His Company (paid stock promotion, 2023) CFTC 2023-09-29 filed
SEC v. Nano-x Imaging Ltd. and Ran Poliakine (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-29 $650k judgment
SEC v. Cloudastructure, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-27 $558k settled
SEC v. Hightimes Holding Corp. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-27 settled
CFTC v. Dallas and Los Angeles Area Precious Metals Dealers (paid stock promotion, 2023) CFTC 2023-09-26 filed
SEC v. Michael Caridi (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-25 unknown
SEC v. Stephen L. Bailey, Sapphire Exploration LLC, and Harris Exploration Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-25 filed
SEC v. George Stubos (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-09-12 judgment
SEC v. Justin Sun, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., Rainberry, Inc., Austin Mahone, and Deandre Cortez Way (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-08-07 judgment
SEC v. Brent Seaman, Accanito Holdings, LLC, and others (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-07-28 judgment
SEC v. Nayeem Choudhury and Dream Venture Capital Group, LLC (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-07-12 unknown
SEC v. Costello et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-07-11 judgment
SEC v. Empires Consulting Corp., et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-07-06 $6m judgment
SEC v. Eleazar Kauderer, GPL Ventures LLC, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-05-24 judgment
SEC v. Thomas Carter Ronk (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-05-22 judgment
SEC v. Joshua David Nicholas, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-05-12 judgment
SEC v. Neil Bergquist; Up and Global SEZC; Coinme, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-04-28 $150k settled
SEC v. Carnovale, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-31 judgment
SEC v. Justin Sun et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-24 settled
SEC v. Aliaune Damala Badara Akon Thiam (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Jake Joseph Paul (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Lindsay Dee Lohan (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Michele Anne Mason (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Miles Parks McCollum (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Shaffer Chimere Smith (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-03-22 settled
SEC v. Paul Anthony Pierce (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-02-17 settled
SEC v. Charlie Abujudeh (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-01-23 $414k judgment
SEC v. Caroline Ellison and Zixiao "Gary" Wang (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-01-19 settled
SEC v. Samuel Bankman-Fried (paid stock promotion, 2023) SEC 2023-01-19 filed
SEC v. In Ovations Holdings, Inc. and Mark Goldberg (fake press releases, 2022) SEC 2022-12-09 judgment
SEC v. Scott David Mahoney (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-11-04 judgment
SEC v. NewAge, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-10-19 settled
SEC v. Kimberly Kardashian (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-10-03 settled
SEC v. Cemtrex, Inc. and Saagar Govil (Corrected) (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-09-30 settled
SEC v. Jonathan William Mikula, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-09-30 $777k settled
SEC v. Lisa Sanford (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-09-30 settled
SEC v. Compass Minerals International, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-09-23 settled
SEC v. Taronis Technologies, Inc., et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-08-25 $150k settled
CFTC v. Jimmy Gale Watson (paid stock promotion, 2022) CFTC 2022-07-18 $290k judgment
SEC v. Bruce Schoengood, Medifirst Solutions, Inc., and Joshua Tyrell (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-07-18 judgment
SEC v. John David McAfee and Jimmy Gale Watson, Jr. (newsletter scalping, 2022) SEC 2022-07-15 judgment
SEC v. Stubos, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-06-08 filed
SEC v. Sohrab (Sam") Sharma (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-05-19 judgment
SEC v. Brenda Smith, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-05-11 filed
SEC v. Dean Shah et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-04-15 filed
SEC v. Global Wholehealth Partners Corp., Charles Strongo, Brian M. Volmer, Joshua Yafa, Jamie M. Yafa, and Empire Associates, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2022) SEC 2022-02-17 filed
SEC v. Michael J. Starkweather and Andiamo Corporation (fake press releases, 2021) SEC 2021-12-03 judgment
SEC v. Carnovale, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-12-02 filed
SEC v. BNZ One Capital, LLC, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-10-29 filed
SEC v. Adam Heimann (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-09-30 settled
SEC v. Frantz Simeon and First Black Enterprises, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-09-23 unknown
SEC v. Rivetz Corp., Rivetz International SEZC, and Steven K. Sprague (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-09-08 filed
SEC v. Alexander Kon (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-09-01 unknown
SEC v. Lawrence B. Adams (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-08-16 filed
SEC v. Virland A. Johnson (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-08-03 filed
SEC v. Charlie Abujudeh (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-07-22 unknown
SEC v. Blotics Ltd. f/d/b/a Coinschedule Ltd. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-07-14 settled
SEC v. Contrarian Press, LLC, Scott S. Fraser, and Nathan Yeung (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-07-01 dismissed
SEC v. Reuben Robert Goldman and Two Triangle Consulting Group, LLC d/b/a Goldman Small Cap Research (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-06-30 settled
CFTC v. Chicago Commodity Pool Operators (paid stock promotion, 2021) CFTC 2021-05-27 $150k judgment
SEC v. Amit Tandon, Esq. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-04-22 judgment
SEC v. Morrie Tobin et al. (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-04-19 judgment
SEC v. Shawn C. Cutting (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-03-11 unknown
CFTC v. Two Individuals (paid stock promotion, 2021) CFTC 2021-03-05 filed
SEC v. Bruce Schoengood, Medifirst Solutions, Inc. and Joshua Tyrell (paid stock promotion, 2021) SEC 2021-02-24 filed
SEC v. Anthony Thompson, Jr., et al. (paid stock promotion, 2020) SEC 2020-12-30 judgment
SEC v. J. Jeremy Barbera, Carl Smith, and Nanobeak Biotech Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2020) SEC 2020-12-09 judgment
CFTC v. unnamed respondents (paid stock promotion, 2020) CFTC 2020-11-04 $450k judgment
SEC v. Mustafa David Sayid, Esq. (paid stock promotion, 2020) SEC 2020-10-22 judgment