SEC v. David Aubel and Robert Raffa (pump and dump, 2020)

Judgment entered

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In 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a release announcing it had obtained final judgments against David Aubel and Robert Raffa for concealing ownership of Green Energy stock, paying promoters and manipulating its price. This library classifies the conduct as pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks. The release records a civil penalty of $150,000, disgorgement of $242,553.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$150k

Disgorgement

$243k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$393k

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 January 27, 2020 as release LR-24725. The respondents named are David Aubel and Robert Raffa (2 individuals, 0 entities).

The release reports final judgments in the Green Energy case: a $150,000 penalty against Aubel and disgorgement of $242,553 deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution order, with injunctions covering Section 17(a), Section 10(b), Section 5 and the ownership-reporting rules. The matter concerns concealed ownership, paid promotions and manipulative trading, so the paid-promotion tag has been replaced with pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks.

This library tags the matter as pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks, 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 relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $150,000, disgorgement of $242,553. 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 2 techniques 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.

• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Undisclosed control blocks — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2020-01-27 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.