SEC v. Bruce Garelick, Michael Shvartsman, Rocket One Capital LLC, and Gerald Shvartsman (insider trading, 2023)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-bruce-garelick-michael-shvartsman-rocket-one-capital-llc-insider-trading-202) by email

In June 2023 the SEC charged Bruce Garelick, Michael and Gerald Shvartsman and Rocket One Capital over trading ahead of the DWAC and Trump Media merger announcement. Final consent judgments against the two Shvartsman brothers were entered on January 28, 2026, and the claims against Rocket One were dropped; the source does not report on Garelick.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$22.9m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$22.9m

Alleged gain

$22.9m

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 the complaint on June 30, 2023 as litigation release 25760; it was filed on June 29 in the Southern District of New York.

The complaint alleges Garelick passed board-level deal updates to his employer Michael Shvartsman, who shared them with his brother Gerald, and that each bought DWAC securities and sold after the announcement. It also charges Garelick with failing to file Section 16 reports.

No outcome is reported. The earlier record had the status as unknown and the names merged.

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.

The SEC reported on February 5, 2026 that the Southern District of New York entered final consent judgments against Gerald and Michael Shvartsman on January 28, 2026. Both are permanently enjoined from further antifraud violations. Gerald Shvartsman must pay disgorgement of $4,640,325.25 and Michael Shvartsman $18,269,042.98, each treated as satisfied by forfeiture in the parallel criminal case, and Michael Shvartsman also received an officer-and-director bar. The SEC voluntarily dismissed its action against Rocket One Capital LLC.

The release does not mention Bruce Garelick, so this record does not show how the claims against him ended; he was not checked beyond that release. The stored disgorgement is the sum of the two brothers' figures, and the date is the judgment date.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2023-06-30 Litigation release published
2. 2026-01-28 Final consent judgments entered against the Shvartsman brothers; claims against Rocket One dismissed

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 reporting the outcome

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.