SEC v. Contrarian Press, LLC, Scott S. Fraser, and Nathan Yeung (paid stock promotion, 2021)

Judgment entered

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In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a release reporting final judgments against Scott Fraser and Nathan Yeung over promotional campaigns for Empowered Products that did not disclose that the company and Fraser had paid for them. The claim against the defunct newsletter company was dismissed. This library classifies the conduct as paid stock promotion. The release records a civil penalty of $200,000.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$200k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$200k

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 July 1, 2021 as release LR-25131. The respondents named are Contrarian Press, LLC, Scott S. Fraser, and Nathan Yeung (1 individual, 1 entity). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

The release reports final judgments: a $125,000 penalty and bars against Fraser, and for his co-defendant Yeung (who coordinated one campaign) a 2019 judgment with $38,276 in disgorgement and interest and a $75,000 penalty. The claims against the newsletter company were dismissed as it was defunct, which is what an earlier record reading 'dismissed' reflected; the action as a whole ended in judgments. The penalty recorded is Fraser's and Yeung's combined.

This library tags the matter as paid stock promotion, 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.

The action was dismissed. We keep dismissed matters in the library precisely so that the outcome is visible alongside the original allegation.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $200,000. 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.

• Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2021-07-01 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.

• SEC litigation release

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.