SEC v. Aaron O'Brian Freeman (free riding and parking, 2025)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. SEC 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.

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In September 2025 the SEC sued North Carolina man Aaron Freeman, alleging that in January and February 2024 he deposited nearly $3.5 million of checks from closed or empty accounts, bought $889,087 of securities on the credit, and used accounts in two relatives' names. These are allegations.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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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 on September 22, 2025 (litigation release 26407) a complaint filed on September 19, 2025 in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

The SEC alleges that between at least January and February 2024 Freeman initiated nearly $3.5 million in unfunded check deposits, bought $889,087.04 of securities using immediate credit and spent about $4,000 on a broker-issued debit card, using accounts in his name and in the names of two relatives, including a disabled aunt. The brokers discovered the scheme, froze the accounts and liquidated the positions, with net losses of at least $5,463.26. He is charged under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, and the SEC seeks injunctions, disgorgement, interest and a penalty. This library tags the matter as free riding because the conduct is trading on credit with no funds behind it. The case was pending at the date of the release.

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.

Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome found on SEC pages. The SEC litigation-release index, which runs through LR-26664, has no later release naming these defendants.

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.

• Free riding and parking — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2025-09-22 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. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.