SEC v. Damon R. Durante (2023)
Settled
Checked against the primary document on October 3, 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.
In June 2023 the SEC settled with Damon Durante, who acted as an unregistered broker selling more than 2.8 million shares of Global Resource Energy for up to half of the proceeds as commission. He was barred, ordered to pay $332,309.79 disgorgement and $37,726.60 interest, and had pleaded guilty to conspiracy with a six-month sentence.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | 34-97827 |
| Date filed | 2023-06-30 |
| Status | settled |
| Asset class | equities |
| Venue | OTC |
| Criminal parallel | Yes: sentenced (Damon R. Durante), U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio |
| Sentence | 6 months |
| Bars imposed | industry-wide association bar, penny stock bar |
| Defendants | Damon R. Durante |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Exchange Act s.15(a) |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- —
- Disgorgement
- $332k
- Prejudgment interest
- $37.7k
- Total relief
- $370k
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
The Securities and Exchange Commission instituted and settled this proceeding on June 30, 2023 (Exchange Act release 97827), without admission or denial by Durante.
The order finds that from at least April 2019 to July 2020 Durante, directed by others, solicited investors to buy restricted and free-trading shares of Global Resource Energy (GBEN) for commissions of up to 50 and 35 per cent of proceeds, with a network of salespeople selling over 2.8 million shares, and so acted as an unregistered broker in violation of Section 15(a). On August 17, 2022 he pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Ohio to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $355,625.20 jointly with co-defendants.
He was ordered to cease and desist, barred from association with any broker, dealer, adviser or transfer agent and from penny-stock offerings, and to pay disgorgement of $332,309.79 and prejudgment interest of $37,726.60; no penalty was imposed in light of his prison sentence. The order mentions an undisclosed control person of GBEN only as background, so the undisclosed-control tag is removed. The $784,125 the record showed as alleged gain is the group's sales proceeds for restricted shares, not his gain, and is cleared.
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.
Timeline
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.