Market Manipulation. Search

Civil cases with a criminal parallel

811 of 3,273 records (25%) carry the corrected criminal-parallel flag, and half of those (397) record a sentence stage. SEBI orders almost never do (1 of 656): SEBI penalises, it does not prosecute. No civil-to-DOJ gap can be timed. Eleven matters span two regulators; eight were released the same day.

Published 2026-10-04 · 10 min read

A flag called “criminal parallel” sits on 811 of the library’s 3,273 records, 25%. It is the only link the library keeps between a civil or regulatory case and a criminal one. This post reports the flag as corrected on 4 October 2026, asks how often it appears by regulator, technique and outcome, how far the criminal cases went, what sentences sit beside it, what the flag still cannot show, and how many matters show up under more than one regulator. The last of those cannot be answered the way it was posed, and the reason is itself a finding.

The finding first

After correction, the flag marks 811 of 3,273 records (25%): 32% of SEC records, 32% of CFTC records, 81% of ASIC records, 3% of AMF France records and 0.2% (one of 656) of SEBI records. It stood at 836 (34%) before the corrections. A reading of the SEC and CFTC release texts found 113 flags that rested only on a prosecutor’s name or on criminal vocabulary with no case behind it, and 15 records that described a criminal case but were unflagged; all 128 were corrected. Eleven records that carry a recorded sentence but no flag were then flagged, which made 805. Later resolution rounds of the “filed” records took it to 816, and a final pass cleared about 11 flags and added a few (such as Mohan 2018 and Stanford 2025), back to 805. On 5 October 2026 the library added 209 records from France’s financial regulator, the AMF, six of them flagged, which made 811 of 2,637. On 7 October 21 records that were not individual enforcement matters were removed and 489 records from India’s SEBI were added, one of them flagged, and the count is again 811, now of 3,106. On 9 October 167 more SEBI records were added, none flagged, which makes 811 of 3,273. AMF sanctions and SEBI orders are administrative decisions, not court cases, and any criminal parallel is a separate prosecution; neither is comparable with the court-action regulators.

Six other results follow.

What the flag means in this library

The field is criminalParallel, a boolean that defaults to false (src/content.config.ts). Nothing in the schema or in DECISIONS.md defines it beyond its name. The case-page template writes “The release references a parallel criminal proceeding” when it is true, so the working definition is that a record refers to a criminal proceeding connected to the matter.

It was first set by keyword rules at ingest. For SEC and CFTC records the rule fired when the release text contained any of eight phrases. Five are statements about a case: indictment, pleaded guilty, criminal charges, criminal complaint, parallel criminal. Three are only the names of a prosecuting body: “Department of Justice”, “U.S. Attorney” and “United States Attorney”. ASIC and FCA records use different, shorter rules (convicted, sentenced, pleaded guilty, criminal charges and similar); OSC records use the same rule as the SEC’s. The DOJ ingest script would set it true on every record it wrote, but it has written none.

The 2 to 4 October 2026 audits then read the records against their documents. The results are in the corrected flag: the three prosecutor names no longer count by themselves, and a later judgment or release that reports a criminal case now counts even where the first release did not. The flag alone does not say how the criminal case ended; the criminalOutcome field, described below, records the stage. Neither says whether it came before or after the civil one.

How it was measured

A script, scripts/analysis/civil-and-criminal-links.mjs, reads the case files and prints every number below. It loads the library’s grouping code (src/lib/matters.ts) for the matter counts. A second section reads the cached copy of each SEC and CFTC release, so it runs only where that cache exists; 26 of the 2,178 SEC and CFTC records have no readable cached copy and are left out of the release-text checks. Rates are shares of records, a record counts once under each technique tag it carries, and counts are given beside every percentage.

Figures are as of 7 October 2026, after the status and flag corrections, the addition of the AMF France and SEBI records (656 SEBI in all) and the removal of 21 non-matter records. Since the first version of this post, 543 of the 733 records that had status “filed” were researched and updated; 180 are still “filed”. With all seven regulators the library holds 1,284 settled, 1,615 judgment, 163 dismissed, 24 unknown and 7 appealed records. The flag corrections are the ones described above, and the sentence count rose from 168 to 286 because the researched records add sentences stated in later documents. Cross-regulator matters were recomputed: the library’s grouping links the Agridime matter. The AMF France and SEBI records add no cross-regulator matter and nothing to the hand-read matters below. The stage counts were re-derived on 7 October from the current files, after 19 “convicted” records were moved to “not stated” and Stanford was restored to “sentenced”.

The hand reading was done by a Claude AI agent, not by a lawyer, on the library as it stood on 4 October; the AMF France and SEBI records were not hand-read for the flag (for SEBI, the flag was set by the AI agent that wrote each record from the order). It covered the flagged records whose release held criminal wording but no explicit phrase, every flagged record that named only a prosecutor, a seeded random sample of 30 from the flagged records with an explicit phrase, every unflagged release whose text held conviction or charge wording, the ten longest sentences and a random 16 more, and every record of each cross-regulator matter together with the releases behind them. The other records were classified by the script’s word search and not read one by one. Headline counts were recomputed a second way, by counting flagged and sentenced files directly, and agreed.

What it shows

By regulator and route

Share of records carrying the corrected criminal-parallel flag, by regulator and SEC routeA horizontal bar chart of the share of records whose criminalParallel field is true, by source, computed from the case files on 7 October 2026 after the flag corrections. ASIC 81 percent (92 of 113), SEC litigation releases 44 percent (525 of 1,198), SEC administrative law judge decisions 34 percent (20 of 58), CFTC 32 percent (108 of 334), Ontario Securities Commission 19 percent (13 of 69), FCA 17 percent (8 of 48), SEC administrative orders 6 percent (35 of 558), AMF France, whose decisions are administrative sanctions, 3 percent (6 of 209) and SEBI in India, whose orders are administrative and which does not prosecute, 0.2 percent (1 of 656). Thirty SEC records that fit none of the three SEC routes are left out. ASIC records are mostly announcements of the criminal case itself, so that bar is not comparable with the others, and the SEBI bar mostly shows that its orders do not report criminal cases.ASIC 81% 92 of 113SEC litigation releases 44% 525 of 1,198SEC ALJ decisions 34% 20 of 58CFTC 32% 108 of 334OSC 19% 13 of 69FCA 17% 8 of 48SEC administrative orders 6% 35 of 558AMF France 3% 6 of 209SEBI (India) <1% 1 of 656

The overall rate is 25% (811 of 3,273). By regulator it is 32% for the SEC (583 of 1,844), 32% for the CFTC (108 of 334), 17% for the FCA (8 of 48), 19% for the OSC (13 of 69), 81% for ASIC (92 of 113), 3% for AMF France (6 of 209) and 0.2% for SEBI (1 of 656). AMF France decisions are administrative sanctions, and a criminal case that runs beside one is a separate prosecution, which explains little about the low rate. The library has no DOJ, FINRA or CIRO records. Because the three SEC routes behave so differently, the SEC figure hides most of the story: litigation releases 525 of 1,198 (44%), administrative law judge decisions 20 of 58 (34%), administrative orders 35 of 558 (6%). A litigation release reports a court action, and an administrative order is typically a settled order issued by the Commission itself. The data show the difference in rate; they do not show why it arises.

ASIC is not comparable. In an evenly spaced read of 12 flagged ASIC titles, nine announce a charge, a guilty plea, a conviction or a sentence, and the other three are a ban and two records titled “ASIC v.” Where ASIC brings a prosecution the record is the criminal matter, not a civil record with a criminal shadow. That read was made before the corrections and ASIC records changed little since. The FCA and OSC counts are small (8 and 13 flagged), and the five FCA final notices in the matters below contain no criminal wording at all.

SEBI: what a false flag means

SEBI is the plainest case of a flag that says little. SEBI is India’s securities regulator. It restrains people from the market and orders penalties and disgorgement under securities law, and it does not prosecute or convict; any criminal case is a separate proceeding that its orders mention only if the facts in front of the officer include one. Of the 656 SEBI records, one carries the flag, the 2022 order on the Religare group, which notes that civil and criminal recovery steps had already been started. In 245 more, the record, written by an AI agent from the order, says that the order describes no criminal case; many of the others say the order does not mention one, or that the record does not show one. I did not tally those.

So “false” on a SEBI record means “the order we read does not report a criminal case”, which is a statement about the order and not about the matter. It is not evidence that nobody was prosecuted. One unflagged record shows the gap: a 2022 order on a company’s dealings records that the company later filed criminal complaints with the police, and the record notes that the order does not say how far any criminal matter went. The flag was not set. SEBI’s 0.2% therefore cannot be set beside the SEC’s 32% as a measure of how often Indian conduct is also prosecuted. The 656 records are also AI-agent readings, not lawyers’ reviews: the first 489 had a sampled second read of 60 (56 agreed on every field, 93%), and for the 167 added on 9 October a sampled second read of 50 of them on 9 October agreed on every field for 46 (92%, interval 81% to 97%; the misses were two dissolved-company dismissals counted as out of scope and two technique tags, since corrected). SEBI’s scope here is wider than manipulation: it includes issuer and broker fraud with fraud-regulation findings and some orders that dismiss the allegation, so a criminal parallel is less likely to be mentioned in many of them. That is a reason to treat any SEBI-specific rate here as provisional.

By technique

Share of SEC litigation releases carrying the corrected criminal-parallel flag, by technique tagA horizontal bar chart of the share of SEC litigation-release records with the criminal-parallel flag, for each technique tag carried by at least 30 such records. Ponzi schemes 49 percent (142 of 289), pump and dump 47 percent (48 of 103), insider trading 46 percent (181 of 390), boiler rooms 42 percent (22 of 52), undisclosed control blocks 38 percent (19 of 50), unregistered distributions 35 percent (23 of 66) and paid stock promotion 29 percent (10 of 35). A record can carry several tags and counts once under each. Smaller groups are left out of the chart and discussed in the text.Ponzi schemes 49% 142 of 289Pump and dump 47% 48 of 103Insider trading 46% 181 of 390Boiler rooms 42% 22 of 52Undisclosed control blocks 38% 19 of 50Unregistered distributions 35% 23 of 66Paid stock promotion 29% 10 of 35

The chart uses SEC litigation releases only, because mixing in administrative orders and other regulators makes a technique’s rate depend on its route. Ponzi schemes (142 of 289), insider trading (181 of 390), pump and dump (48 of 103) and boiler rooms (22 of 52) sit between 42% and 49%; undisclosed control blocks (19 of 50) at 38% and unregistered distributions (23 of 66) at 35%; paid stock promotion (10 of 35) lowest. The gaps between the top four are a few records and are not a ranking. Among smaller groups, price manipulation is 10 of 21 and matched orders 14 of 25 (both under 30, so read cautiously); spoofing is 1 of 8 and Rule 105 offering shorts 0 of 3, both below 10 and too small to compare.

Across all routes, Rule 105 offering shorts (0 of 85) and naked short selling (0 of 35) never carry the flag. Seventy-seven of the 85 Rule 105 records and 29 of the 35 naked-short records are SEC administrative orders, which in general rarely carry the flag (6%), so the zero here is as much about route as about conduct. Neither the library nor this analysis can say whether a criminal case could have been brought for such conduct.

By outcome

By status the flag appears on 433 of 1,615 judgment records (27%), 71 of 180 “filed” records (39%), 12 of 24 “unknown” (50%) and 285 of 1,284 settled records (22%). It appears on 10 of 163 dismissed records (6%), and 122 of those 163 are SEBI orders, none flagged; appealed (0 of 7) is too small to compare. The judgment share fell from 38% to 27% when SEBI’s 466 judgment records, almost all unflagged, were added. The settled figure is mostly route. Of the 1,284 settled records, 522 are SEC administrative orders, and those carry the flag 5% of the time (26 of 522). Among SEC litigation releases alone the gap disappears: judgment 239 of 546 (44%), settled 215 of 486 (44%) and “filed” 60 of 147 (41%). Status “filed” means the outcome was not found or the case is still running, so “filed” is not a stage.

The flag is also unstable within one matter. Of the 315 matters the library groups into more than one record, in 138 every record is flagged, in 138 none is, and in 39 the records disagree. Records in multi-record matters carry the flag more often (369 of 716, 52%) than single-record matters (442 of 2,557, 17%). Longer matters give a release more chances to mention a criminal case; that is a reading, and the data cannot test it.

What the corrected flag rests on

Of the 689 flagged SEC and CFTC records whose release text was read:

What the cached release saysRecords
An explicit criminal phrase (indictment, plea, criminal charges, criminal complaint, parallel criminal)528
Conviction, sentence or criminal-case wording, but not those phrases68
No such wording; the record’s own text, written from later documents, reports a criminal step93

The 93 in the third row are mostly later judgments that treat civil money as satisfied by criminal restitution or forfeiture, or later releases that report a plea or sentence. For example the SEC’s case against Manuel Romero was flagged on a prosecutor’s thanks in the first release and is no longer. We did not re-read those later documents here; the row shows only that the record’s own text refers to a criminal step.

Across all 811 flagged records, 777 have a criminal word in the record’s own summary or narrative. Of the other 34, 33 are SEC or CFTC records whose release states a case. One has neither, and we could not check it: an SEC order whose release is not cached (Hannelius). The Stanford 2025 record, which had been the second, now cites the Fifth Circuit’s opinion on his conviction and sentence in its own text.

What the flag still cannot show

Missed cases. Of 1,463 unflagged SEC and CFTC records whose release was read, 55 hold conviction or charge wording. Reading them: eight are follow-on orders that rest on the respondent’s own earlier conviction or plea; three name a criminal case about the same scheme or issuer (Kaplan, Voutsas, Bandimere) and are arguably flaggable; the other 44 mention a conviction as background, a founder’s past record, or case law. Another 197 unflagged records (including AMF France decisions, and leaving out SEBI’s routine “no criminal case” sentence) have a criminal word somewhere in their summary or narrative; 41 of them still carry the case-page template sentence about a parallel criminal proceeding, which no longer matches the flag. We did not read those one by one. The earlier hand reading found the real misses, such as Dawn Bennett and Rudy Avila, and they are now flagged.

Same conduct or another person’s. The flag says a criminal case is connected to the matter. It does not say the criminal case is against the civil respondent: a co-defendant’s or an earlier scheme’s case counts the same.

Silent releases. The flag comes from what a release or a later document said. A civil release that is silent about a criminal case is not evidence there was none.

On this measure the SEC and CFTC rate is 32.0% (689 of 2,152 records whose release text was read), and 27.7% (596 of 2,152) where the first release itself states the case.

How far the criminal cases went

Every flagged record except one now carries a criminalOutcome field: the furthest stage of the criminal case that the record’s document states, who it covers, and where known the court and date. The exception is the flagged SEBI record, whose order says only that criminal recovery steps had begun. Across the 811 flagged records the stage is sentenced on 397 (49%), charged on 210 (26%), pleaded guilty on 124 (15%), convicted on 26 (3%), not stated on 48 (6%), dismissed on 3 and acquitted on 2, with none recorded on the SEBI record. These counts were re-derived from the case files on 7 October 2026; an earlier table here still showed 45 “convicted”, from before 19 of them were moved to “not stated”.

GroupRecordsSentencedPleadedConvictedChargedOther
All flagged811397 (49%)124 (15%)26 (3%)210 (26%)54
SEC583253 (43%)89 (15%)20 (3%)180 (31%)41
CFTC10857 (53%)14 (13%)330 (28%)4
ASIC9268 (74%)19 (21%)203
OSC (under 30)13121000
AMF France (under 10, administrative sanctions)610104
FCA (under 10, too small to compare)861001
SEBI (under 10, administrative orders)100001
Insider trading250119 (48%)41 (16%)1164 (26%)15
Ponzi schemes231133 (58%)28 (12%)451 (22%)15
Pump and dump5925 (42%)9318 (31%)4
Price manipulation5828 (48%)15 (26%)110 (17%)4
Boiler rooms3116 (52%)6261
Unregistered distributions (under 30)2876096

Technique rows count a record once under each tag it carries. “Other” is not stated, dismissed and acquitted, plus the SEBI record with no stage. Within the SEC, litigation releases are 220 sentenced of 525 (42%) and ALJ decisions 17 of 20, though the ALJ group is small. Insider trading and Ponzi schemes reach the sentence stage more often than the rest; the data show the difference and not why. ASIC is mostly the criminal case itself, so its high sentenced share is the record’s subject, not a civil case that went on to sentence.

A sentence length in months is recorded on 286 of the 811 flagged records (35%), so 111 records at the sentenced stage carry no figure in months, usually because the document gives no number or the sentences are for several people. No record has a figure in months without the sentenced stage. A stage date is recorded on 402 records.

What the stage field cannot show. It covers only the people named in its covers text, which can be one defendant of several: Simmons’s 480 months, for example, sits beside a co-defendant’s 4.5 years that is not in the sentence field. It is the furthest stage the document states, so later stages (an appeal, a plea after a charge) are unknown, and “charged” may be long out of date. Some deferred prosecution agreements are recorded as “charged”, and for ASIC the stage describes the record’s own prosecution. These are reading calls by AI agents, not lawyers, and we did not re-verify each against its source.

How reliable is the stage field. An independent check by a second AI agent re-read 80 sampled records against their sources. It agreed with the recorded stage on 68 of 80 (85%; 95% interval 76% to 91%). Of the 12 disagreements, 7 were over-statements, mostly “convicted” resting only on a restitution or forfeiture order, and 5 were under-statements. The sentence length in months was correct in all 20 records that carried one, and two “covers” texts were wrong. Seven records were corrected as a result. A later re-read of 34 of the 45 “convicted” records, those whose text did not itself state a plea, verdict or sentence, found 19 resting on a restitution or forfeiture order alone; those were moved to “not stated”, and 15 were kept because their source states a conviction or plea, which left 26 convicted. On 7 October the Stanford 2025 record was restored from “not stated” to “sentenced” (1,320 months) from the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in the criminal case, and another record (Bretas) was confirmed from CFTC releases. Neither change was part of the 80-record check. Deferred prosecution agreements are handled inconsistently: ten are recorded as “charged” and four as “not stated”. The sample bounds the error and does not remove it, and the counts above should be read as roughly 85% reliable, not exact.

Sentences

Custodial sentence recorded on the library's 286 records that carry one, in monthsA column chart of the 286 records with a sentence in months, grouped by length. Forty-nine records record 12 months or less, 99 record 13 to 36 months, 29 record 37 to 60 months, 61 record 61 to 120 months and 48 record more than 120 months. The median is 36 months and the middle half of records lie between 18 and 84 months. The three longest are 1,320 months (Stanford), 480 and 300, and the median is unchanged without the top two. Records of one matter often repeat one sentence, so counted by matter there are 205 sentences with a median of 37 months. 0 33 66 99 49Up to 12 9913 to 36 2937 to 60 6161 to 120 48Over 120Records, by months of custodial sentence

A custodial sentence in months is recorded on 286 records, all flagged (a record with a sentence was treated as having a criminal case), over a third of the 811. A sentence is recorded where a release or a later document states one, so it covers only what a document says. By agency the share of flagged records with a sentence is 65% for ASIC (60 of 92), 38% for the CFTC (41 of 108) and 31% for the SEC (180 of 583). The 286 skew toward cases at the end of the process, because a document usually mentions a sentence only after one is imposed.

The median is 36 months (middle half 18 to 84; mean 67.5). Forty-nine records are 12 months or less, 48 over 120 months. The three longest are Robert Allen Stanford at 1,320 months (110 years), Keith Simmons at 480 months (40 years) and Gary McDuff at 300; without the top two, the median is still 36 and the mean falls to 61.6. By tag with at least 10 records, Ponzi schemes have 105 (median 84; also 84 without Stanford), insider trading 86 (median 18), price manipulation 21 (median 21) and pump and dump 18 (median 45). Within insider trading the SEC’s 49 records have a median of 14 months and ASIC’s 36 have 18. Records of one matter often repeat the same sentence: the three Merrill records each carry 264 months and two Adams records 234. Counted by matter there are 205 sentences, median 37 months (middle half 18 to 84), and 67 of those matters have more than one sentenced record. We checked the ten longest values and 16 random ones against the cached releases when 168 records carried a sentence. All matched a stated sentence for a person named in the record, except that multi-defendant records carry one defendant’s figure, and the Merrill record carries the longest of three (22 years) while its release headline concerns a different defendant’s two-year sentence. The records added since were not re-checked here, and the Stanford figure, which came from the Fifth Circuit’s opinion cited in the record, was not re-read for this post. A total of 112 of the 286 records have more than one defendant, so a reader comparing sentences by case should not read a sentence as the case’s.

Matters that span regulators

What the library can and cannot count

The library’s grouping code links records of one scheme when they share a lead defendant name of at least two words, overlapping technique tags and a date window, share a court docket, or cite each other’s release number or address. On 7 October 2026 it puts the 3,273 records into 2,872 matters. Of these, 315 hold two or more records (716 records altogether), and seven span more than one regulator: five CFTC and FCA pairs and two CFTC and SEC matters. No SEBI or AMF France record is in a cross-regulator matter.

No matter has a DOJ record, because the library has none. The DOJ ingest reads only a rolling feed of recent press releases, and the sources page says historical DOJ items are reached only through the civil action’s page. No record names a justice.gov address in its release link, document list or timeline. So the measure asked for, the days between a civil record and a DOJ record for the same matter, has zero pairs. The nearest substitute is what each civil release says about the criminal case, below.

Eleven matters, read by hand

The grouping rules prefer a missed link to a false one, so we looked for misses. We searched for any defendant name shared across regulators within three years, then for CFTC releases that say a related SEC or FCA action exists, and read both records and both releases for every candidate. Eleven are the same matter: in ten, a CFTC release itself names the other regulator’s action, and for the eleventh (Barclays, FX) the two releases cover the same bank, the same conduct and the same day. The 2013 Royal Bank of Scotland notice was issued by the FSA, the FCA’s predecessor, and the library files it under FCA.

MatterRecordsFirst release by each regulatorGapLinked by the rules
Rabobank, LIBOR and EuriborCFTC, FCAboth 29 Oct 20130 daysyes
ICAP Europe, yen LIBORCFTC, FCAboth 25 Sep 20130yes
Royal Bank of Scotland, LIBORCFTC, FCAboth 6 Feb 20130yes
Deutsche Bank, LIBOR and EuriborCFTC, FCAboth 23 Apr 20150yes
Barclays, FX benchmarksCFTC, FCAboth 20 May 20150yes
Goliath VenturesCFTC, SECboth 11 Aug 20260yes
Agridime, cattle schemetwo SEC, two CFTCSEC 18 Dec 2023, CFTC 14 May 2024148yes
Martin Brokers, yen LIBORFCA, CFTCboth 15 May 20140no
JPMorgan, metals and Treasuries spoofingSEC, CFTCboth 29 Sep 20200no
Five banks, FX benchmarksfive FCA notices, one CFTC orderFCA 11 Nov 2014, CFTC 12 Nov1no
Michael Coscia, spoofingFCA, CFTCFCA 3 Jul 2013, CFTC 22 Jul19no

The four unlinked matters have one of two causes: a lead name of one word, which the rule ignores (Citibank in the FX order), or a different lead defendant in each regulator’s record (Coscia against his firm, JPMorgan’s holding company against its securities arm, RP Martin against Martin Brokers). The Goliath, Rabobank and JPMorgan matters are the ones we would point a reader to first, because the later release names the parallel action. Eleven is a floor, not a count: our search was by name and by CFTC cross-reference, and an SEC release that names a CFTC action in a way the search missed would not appear.

Two cautions on the table. The gap is between the library’s dateFiled values, which are mostly release dates but not consistently: the SEC’s Agridime release is dated 18 December 2023 though the complaint was filed on 11 December, so the true gap is 155 days there, and the four Agridime records run over 652 days. And eight of the eleven were released the same day because they were coordinated settlements; the dates show announcement timing, not which regulator moved first.

The corrected flag disagrees across the records of five of the eleven matters: Rabobank, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Goliath and JPMorgan. In each the CFTC record is flagged and the other regulator’s is not; in the other six no record is flagged. The five FCA notices we searched contain no criminal wording. The corrections matter here: the Rabobank, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland orders describe Justice Department deferred prosecution or plea arrangements and stay flagged, while the ICAP and Barclays FX orders only thank the Department and are now unflagged.

What the records say about order

The library cannot time civil against DOJ records, but a civil release can state when the criminal step happened. Where it does, the order is whatever the dates show:

None of this shows that a criminal case caused a civil one or the reverse. The releases show the order of stated events and nothing about why.

What this does not show

Selection. These are cases regulators chose to bring and publish. A matter that was never brought, or that a regulator did not announce, is not here. The rates describe the library’s records, not enforcement at large or the share of offenders who face criminal charges.

A missing flag may be an unreported parallel. A civil release that is silent about a criminal case is not evidence there was none; of 12 CFTC releases that name a parallel SEC action, 9 have no SEC record in the library, so the cross-regulator coverage is thin in the other direction too.

What the flag still cannot show. Of the 689 flagged SEC and CFTC records read, 93 rest on later documents we did not re-read, and one flagged record (not cached) has no criminal wording in the record. Three unflagged records name a criminal case about the same scheme, 55 unflagged releases hold conviction wording that was read, and 197 unflagged records have criminal words in their own text that were not read one by one. The 26 uncached releases and every ASIC, FCA, OSC, AMF France and SEBI record were not release-checked, and ASIC’s rule measures something else. The stage field has its own limits, set out in the section on how far the criminal cases went.

Sentences are partial. They exist only where a document states one, cover over a third of flagged records, repeat across records of one matter, and give one defendant’s figure on 112 multi-defendant records. Records added since our spot check were not re-verified. The set is small by technique, so the medians for groups under 30 are indicative.

The grouping and the dates. The grouping is the library’s and misses single-word and mismatched lead names; our eleven is a floor. dateFiled is not defined consistently between release date and filing date. No DOJ record exists, so no civil-to-criminal gap in days was measured, and the order in the matters above comes from the text of civil releases.

Checked by AI agents, not lawyers. The readings behind the classifications and the flag corrections were made by Claude AI agents with the lead session re-reading disputed cases. No lawyer reviewed them. The case pages say, in the library’s own words, that the grouping and the flag are the library’s, not the regulators’. If you find one that is wrong, use the error link on that record’s page or write to [email protected] with the slug and a link to the document; it will be logged on the corrections page.

Techniques referenced

Cases referenced

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
SEC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher A. Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) SEC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
CFTC v. Goliath Ventures, Inc. and Christopher Delgado (ponzi schemes, 2026) CFTC 2026-08-11 Ponzi Schemes — filed
SEC v. Ward Onsa (ponzi schemes, 2013) SEC 2013-06-17 Ponzi Schemes — judgment
CFTC v. Onsa, New Century Investment Management (ponzi schemes, 2014) CFTC 2014-03-31 Ponzi Schemes $5.7m judgment
SEC v. Agridime LLC, Joshua Link, and Jed Wood (ponzi schemes, 2023) SEC 2023-12-18 Ponzi Schemes — judgment
CFTC v. Agridime LLC, Joshua Link and Jed Wood (ponzi schemes, 2024) CFTC 2024-05-14 Ponzi Schemes — judgment
FCA v. Michael Coscia (layering, 2013) FCA 2013-07-03 Layering , Price Manipulation +1 $903k settled
CFTC v. Panther Energy Trading LLC and Michael J. Coscia (spoofing, 2013) CFTC 2013-07-22 Spoofing $1.4m judgment
CFTC v. Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS (FX benchmark manipulation, 2014) CFTC 2014-11-12 Benchmark Submission Rigging , FX Fixing +1 $1.5bn settled
CFTC v. Rabobank (benchmark submission rigging, 2013) CFTC 2013-10-29 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $475m settled
FCA v. Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen–Boerenleenbank B.A. (‘Rabobank’) (benchmark submission rigging, 2013) FCA 2013-10-29 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Cash Vs Derivatives Schemes +1 — settled
SEC v. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (layering and spoofing, 2020) SEC 2020-09-29 Layering , Spoofing $25m settled
CFTC v. JPMorgan (price manipulation, 2020) CFTC 2020-09-29 Price Manipulation , Spoofing $436m settled
CFTC v. ICAP Europe Limited (benchmark submission rigging, 2013) CFTC 2013-09-25 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $65m settled
SEC v. Manuel A. Romero (ponzi schemes, 2022) SEC 2022-05-10 Ponzi Schemes $50k judgment
SEC v. Dawn J. Bennett and DJB Holdings (ponzi schemes, 2017) SEC 2017-08-25 Ponzi Schemes — judgment
CFTC v. Rudy Avila and six companies (fraudulent solicitation schemes, 2021) CFTC 2021-09-14 Ponzi Schemes — judgment
CFTC v. Simmons, Salazar and their companies (ponzi schemes, 2015) CFTC 2015-07-31 Ponzi Schemes $76m settled

Reviewed October 4, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.