SEC v. Bajic et al., Ciapala et al. (unregistered distributions, 2020)

Settled

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After a series of judgments from 2020 to 2023 against other defendants, the SEC reported in July 2026 that lead defendant Steve Bajic had consented to a final judgment ordering $837,734 in disgorgement, deemed satisfied by a criminal forfeiture, plus a penny stock bar. The court's entry of that judgment is not confirmed in the release.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$35m

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

On January 10, 2020 the SEC announced two complaints, filed January 2, 2020 in the Southern District of New York, alleging schemes that produced over $35 million of illegal stock sales across at least 45 microcap companies. One complaint names Steve M. Bajic, Rajesh Taneja, Kenneth Ciapala, Anthony Killarney, Blacklight SA, Christopher McKnight and Aaron Wise; a second says Ciapala and Blacklight sold millions of unregistered EMS Find shares while the price was inflated. Charges include Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c). These are allegations, with parallel criminal charges. The record previously showed the defendants as 'Bajic et al., Ciapala et al.'.

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

Outcome. Litigation release 26583 (July 10, 2026) says that on July 7, 2026 the SEC filed a consent and proposed final judgment for Bajic, enjoining him from registration and antifraud violations, ordering $837,734 in disgorgement deemed satisfied by a forfeiture judgment in his criminal case, and imposing a penny stock bar. The release also says the SEC would not seek a civil penalty against Rajesh Taneja, and that a consent judgment against Christopher McKnight on September 27, 2023 ordered $985,044 in disgorgement, $164,082 in interest and a $75,000 penalty. Earlier releases report judgments against Killarney and three entities in February 2021 and against Taneja, Wise and McKnight in 2020. The release describes the litigation as ongoing, so entry of the Bajic judgment by the court is not confirmed. Totals across the many defendants are not stored because most figures are combined or left to later determination.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2020-01-10 Litigation release published
2. 2026-07-07 Consent and proposed final judgment filed as to Steve Bajic

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
• SEC litigation release 26583 (Bajic consent judgment)
• SEC litigation release 25035 (Killarney and entity judgments)
• SEC litigation release 24974 (Taneja, Wise, McKnight judgments)

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.