CFTC v. Two Individuals (paid stock promotion, 2021)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. CFTC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.

In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought an action against Two Individuals, alleging conduct this library classifies as paid stock promotion and pump and dump. No monetary relief has been recorded at this stage; the matter is an allegation and remains unproven. A parallel criminal matter is referenced in the release.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	CFTC
Release number	8366-21
Date filed	2021-03-05
Court	U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Status	filed
Asset class	crypto
Criminal parallel	Yes
Defendants	Two Individuals (individual)
Techniques	Paid stock promotion , Pump and dump

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
Alleged gain: —

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on March 5, 2021 as release 8366-21. The respondents named are Two Individuals (1 individual, 0 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

This library tags the matter as paid stock promotion and pump and dump, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The conduct is recorded against crypto.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

This matter is at the allegation stage. Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

2021-03-05 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Action	Agency	Filed	Technique	Penalty	Status
SEC v. George John Drazenovic (paid stock promotion, 2025)	SEC	2025-12-19	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	—	judgment
SEC v. Jonathan Farber, Aarif Jamani, Brian Keasberry (paid stock promotion, 2024)	SEC	2024-01-16	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	—	filed
CFTC v. Jimmy Gale Watson (paid stock promotion, 2022)	CFTC	2022-07-18	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	$290k	judgment
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	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	—	filed
SEC v. Charlie Abujudeh (paid stock promotion, 2021)	SEC	2021-07-22	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	—	unknown
SEC v. Anthony Thompson, Jr., et al. (paid stock promotion, 2020)	SEC	2020-12-30	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump	—	judgment

Record added September 8, 2026. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.