SEC v. Bryan Cohen and George Nikas (insider trading, 2019)

Settled

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On March 25, 2020 the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against former Goldman banker Bryan Cohen, enjoining him and ordering disgorgement offset by his criminal forfeiture. The SEC separately barred him from the securities industry. The outcome for George Nikas was not checked.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$2.6m

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 22, 2019 as release LR-24649. The respondents named are Bryan Cohen and George Nikas (2 individuals, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as insider trading, 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 release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

Outcome. Litigation release 24784 (March 30, 2020) says the court entered a final judgment by consent enjoining Cohen from the antifraud and tender-offer fraud provisions and ordering disgorgement of his gains, to be offset by the forfeiture order in his criminal case. The release gives no disgorgement figure; the SEC's separate administrative order records that in his plea he agreed to forfeit $260,000. That order also bars him from the securities industry and from penny stock offerings. He had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and the release does not report a sentence. This covers Cohen only; George Nikas, the other defendant, was not checked.

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. 2019-10-22 Litigation release published
2. 2020-03-25 Final consent judgment entered against Cohen

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 24784 (Cohen judgment)
• SEC administrative order barring Bryan Cohen

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.