SEC v. 8000, Inc., Jonathan E. Bryant, Thomas J. Kelly, and Carl N. Duncan, Esq. (fake press releases, 2015)

Judgment entered

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In 2015, the SEC announced a default final judgment ordering 8000, Inc. to pay a $6,525,000 civil penalty in a 2012 case alleging the company and others pushed up its stock with false financial reports and press releases while restricted shares were sold. Consultant Jonathan Bryant had disgorged $2,969,525, and the other three defendants had settled.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$6.5m

Disgorgement

$3m

Prejudgment interest

$199k

Total relief

$9.7m

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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on September 16, 2015 as litigation release 23349. The defendants are 8000, Inc., consultant Jonathan E. Bryant, former CEO Thomas J. Kelly and attorney Carl N. Duncan. The complaint alleged that from November 2009 to October 2010 Mr Bryant and Mr Kelly disseminated reports and press releases falsely claiming millions of dollars in financing and revenue, lifting the price from under $0.01 to $0.42, while Mr Bryant sold 56.8 million restricted shares and Mr Duncan supplied false legal opinions removing the restrictions. The September 14, 2015 default judgment against the company imposes the $6.5 million penalty. Mr Bryant's judgment orders $2,969,525 disgorgement and $198,660 interest; Mr Kelly's $415,569 and $46,697; and Mr Duncan's $15,570 disgorgement, $525 interest and a $25,000 penalty. The record previously showed only Mr Duncan's $15,570 as the matter's disgorgement and no penalty; the fields now carry the company's penalty and Mr Bryant's disgorgement.

This library tags the matter as fake press releases, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique 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.

• Fake press releases — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2015-09-16 Litigation 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.

• SEC litigation release

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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.