SEC v. Aegis Capital Corporation (2018)
Settled
Checked against the primary document on October 2, 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.
In 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a release announcing a settlement of an administrative order against a registered broker-dealer for failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports on hundreds of transactions that carried red flags of microcap manipulation. The order censured the firm and imposed a $750,000 civil penalty. The firm is not alleged to have promoted any stock or manipulated any market itself. This library does not tag the matter with a manipulation technique. The release records a civil penalty of $750,000.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | 34-82956 |
| Date filed | 2018-03-28 |
| Status | settled |
| Asset class | equities |
| Venue | Nasdaq, OTC |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Defendants | Aegis Capital Corporation |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- $750k
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- $750k
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on March 28, 2018 as release 34-82956. The respondents named are Aegis Capital Corporation (0 individuals, 1 entity).
The order finds that from late 2012 to early 2014 the firm did not file suspicious activity reports on hundreds of customer transactions in thinly active companies, some during promotional campaigns by customers. The violation charged is the anti-money-laundering reporting rule, Exchange Act Section 17(a) and Rule 17a-8, not promotion or manipulation by the firm. An earlier tag for paid promotion and pump and dump described its customers' activity, not the conduct charged, and has been removed.
This library does not tag the matter with a manipulation technique, because the document does not describe one. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.
The order finds an anti-money-laundering reporting failure: customers deposited and sold low-priced shares, sometimes during paid promotional campaigns, and Aegis did not file reports even where its own procedures listed the red flags. The firm is not charged with running or joining a pump-and-dump; the promotional activity is the context of the transactions it failed to report. This library therefore carries no technique tag on this matter.
The conduct is recorded against equities.
The relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $750,000. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.
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.
Timeline
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.