SEC v. Alex Forester, Michael Hicks, Yarden Krampf, Christopher Lee, Sean O'Neal, Michael Raynor, and Lee Sobel (boiler rooms, 2020)

Judgment entered

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In October 2020 the SEC charged seven individuals with acting as unregistered brokers for boiler rooms selling microcap stock. By 28 October 2022 the Central District of California had entered final judgments against all seven, with injunctions and civil penalties ranging from US$3,000 to US$1,144,061.81 and totalling about US$1.82 million.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.8m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.8m

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 October 27, 2020 as litigation release 24952. The respondents named are Alex Forester, Michael Hicks, Yarden Krampf, Christopher Lee, Sean O'Neal, Michael Raynor and Lee Sobel, in a complaint filed in the Central District of California on October 26, 2020. The SEC alleges that from October 2015 to November 2019 they worked as solicitors for several boiler rooms, using supplied scripts and lead lists to cold-call prospects and pitch microcap shares that investors bought at prices and volumes matching sales by shareholders who had paid the boiler rooms to promote the stock. The complaint says they received over $2.8 million in commissions and that none was a registered broker-dealer or associated with one, charging violation of Exchange Act Section 15(a)(1). Forester, Hicks and Krampf consented, without admitting or denying, to injunctions with the civil penalty reserved, subject to court approval.

This library tags the matter as boiler rooms, 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.

Outcome. The court entered final judgments against each defendant in the Central District of California. Raynor (US$12,594.42) and Sobel (US$3,000) were dated 27 December 2021 and rest on their consents. Lee (US$1,144,061.81) and O'Neal (US$99,276) were default judgments dated 18 July 2022. Forester (US$349,875) and Hicks (US$180,570) followed on 21 September 2022 after the court had granted the SEC's monetary-relief motion in February 2022, and Krampf (US$30,000) on 28 October 2022 after a hearing at which he opposed the motion. Each judgment enjoins the defendant from acting as an unregistered broker under Section 15(a)(1) of the Exchange Act.

The penalty recorded is the sum of the seven penalties. The judgments opened state no disgorgement, and this record did not check any later amendment or any criminal case.

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.

• Boiler rooms — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2020-10-27 Litigation release published
2. 2021-12-27 Final judgments against Michael Raynor and Lee Sobel (consent)
3. 2022-07-18 Default final judgments against Christopher Lee and Sean O'Neal
4. 2022-09-21 Final judgment against Alex Forester and Michael Hicks
5. 2022-10-28 Final judgment against Yarden Krampf

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
• Final judgment, Raynor (27 December 2021)
• Final judgment, Sobel (27 December 2021)
• Final judgment, Lee (18 July 2022)
• Final judgment, O'Neal (18 July 2022)
• Final judgment, Forester and Hicks (21 September 2022)
• Final judgment, Krampf (28 October 2022)

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.