SEC v. Benjamin Ballout, Mohamed Zayed, and William Fielding (pump and dump, 2024)

Judgment entered

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In September 2024 the SEC charged Benjamin Ballout, Mohamed Zayed and William Fielding over an alleged pump-and-dump of Enerkon Solar International stock. Fielding settled by consent in November 2024, and on June 11, 2025, after the court granted the SEC summary judgment, final judgments were entered against Ballout and Zayed with $460,928 penalties each, $96,000 disgorgement and $25,288.33 interest against Zayed, and bars.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$922k

Disgorgement

$96k

Prejudgment interest

$25.3k

Total relief

$1m

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 September 23, 2024 as release LR-26122. The respondents named are Benjamin Ballout, Mohamed Zayed and William Fielding (3 individuals, 0 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida.

This library tags the matter as pump and dump, 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.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

At filing, the SEC reported Fielding's proposed settlement at a $195,000 penalty, $311,000 in disgorgement and $53,230 in interest, subject to court approval. 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.

Non-monetary relief recorded: officer-and-director bar, penny stock bar.

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. SEC litigation release LR-26331 (June 20, 2025) says the court granted the SEC summary judgment on all claims against Ballout and Zayed on May 8, 2025 and entered final judgments on June 11, 2025, which the release describes as resolving all claims in the case. Each owes a civil penalty of $460,928; Zayed also owes $96,000 in disgorgement and $25,288.33 in prejudgment interest. Both are enjoined from further antifraud violations and from taking part in penny stock offerings, and Ballout is barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Fielding's final consent judgment was entered on November 19, 2024; LR-26331 does not give its amounts, so the figures stored here are for Ballout and Zayed only and Fielding's terms are those reported at filing in LR-26122. The release mentions no 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2024-09-23 Litigation release published
2. 2024-11-19 Final consent judgment entered against William Fielding (reported in LR-26331)
3. 2025-06-11 Final judgments entered against Ballout and Zayed (LR-26331)

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 LR-26331 (final 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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.