Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. Artur Khachatryan (spoofing, 2025)

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.

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In 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an action with Artur Khachatryan. Khachatryan consented, subject to court approval, to a judgment over a two-year spoofing scheme in thinly traded after-hours stocks that earned about $373,885: that sum in disgorgement, $22,629 interest and a $112,165 penalty. The release records a civil penalty of $112,165, disgorgement of $373,885, prejudgment interest of $22,629.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-26445
Date filed 2025-12-16
Date resolved 2025-12-16
Court U.S. District Court, Central District of California
Status settled
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Artur Khachatryan (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.9(a)(2) ; Securities Act s.17(a) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques Spoofing

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$112k
Disgorgement
$374k
Prejudgment interest
$22.6k
Total relief
$509k
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 December 16, 2025 as release LR-26445. The respondent named is Artur Khachatryan (1 individual, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as spoofing, 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.

Khachatryan consented, subject to court approval, to a judgment over a two-year spoofing scheme in thinly traded after-hours stocks that earned about $373,885: that sum in disgorgement, $22,629 interest and a $112,165 penalty.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $112,165, disgorgement of $373,885, prejudgment interest of $22,629. 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.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2025-12-16 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.

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. Frank M. Cerisano Jr. (spoofing, 2026) SEC 2026-08-10 Spoofing $335k settled
SEC v. Mingran Wang (spoofing, 2026) SEC 2026-06-25 Spoofing — settled
CFTC v. Sidney Lebental (spoofing, 2026) CFTC 2026-05-06 Spoofing $200k judgment
CFTC v. Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak (spoofing, 2026) CFTC 2026-01-16 Spoofing $350k judgment
SEBI v. Manish Mishra and others (YouTube promotion of GG Engineering, 2025) SEBI (India) 2025-12-19 Social Media Ramps , Spoofing — judgment
CFTC v. Brett Falloon and Flatiron Futures Traders LLC (spoofing, 2025) CFTC 2025-09-09 Spoofing $200k judgment

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.