SEC v. Cort Poyner et al. (price manipulation, 2017)

Judgment entered

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In 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a release reporting the entry of final judgments against two stock promoters charged with a broker-bribery scheme to manipulate two microcap stocks. This library classifies the conduct as price manipulation.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 January 19, 2017 as release LR-23722. The respondents named are Cort Poyner et al. (1 individual, 0 entities).

The release reports final judgments against two stock promoters in an action alleging a broker-bribery scheme to manipulate the stock of two microcap companies. The injunctions are for Section 17(a), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, with penny stock bars. No promotion for undisclosed payment is alleged, so the paid-promotion tag has been replaced with price manipulation.

This library tags the matter as price manipulation, 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.

Non-monetary relief recorded: 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.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2017-01-19 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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.