SEC v. Diane J. Harrison, Michael J. Daniels and Catherine A. Bradaick-Zolla (shell factories, 2018)

Judgment entered

Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-diane-j-harrison-et-al-shell-factories-2018) by email

In April 2018 the SEC sued Diane Harrison, Michael Daniels and Catherine Bradaick-Zolla over alleged microcap shell companies sold as free-trading public companies. Bradaick-Zolla consented to a judgment in September 2018, Harrison consented to an injunction in June 2020, and the court entered a $100,000 judgment against Daniels on 26 December 2024.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-24122
Date filed	2018-04-30
Date resolved	2024-12-26
Court	U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
Status	judgment
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	Yes: sentenced (Kevin S. Mirman and Sheldon R. Rose (earlier defendants in the same scheme; the release does not describe a case against Harrison))
Bars imposed	conduct-based injunction
Defendants	Diane J. Harrison (individual) ; Michael J. Daniels (individual) ; Catherine A. Bradaick-Zolla (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.13(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques	Shell factories , Undisclosed control blocks

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
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 April 30, 2018 as litigation release 24122. The defendants named are Diane J. Harrison, Michael J. Daniels and Catherine A. Bradaick-Zolla, in a complaint filed April 25, 2018. As alleged, Ms Harrison and Mr Daniels created public companies with a false appearance of independent management and shareholders while secretly controlling the shares, sold four of them to Mr Fan, and helped him with false SEC filings, false legal opinion letters (at least 21 for a separate scheme run by Alvin Mirman and Sheldon Rose) and manipulative trades. The complaint asked for injunctions, disgorgement, penalties and bars.

The record was tagged as a fake press release case because the release mentions that Mr Fan and two companies were separately charged, in settled orders, with issuing false press releases. No press release is alleged against these three defendants, so that tag is replaced. A parallel criminal matter exists.

This library tags the matter as shell factories, undisclosed control blocks, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Court and SEC documents show the case has ended for all three named defendants. On 20 September 2018 the Middle District of Florida entered judgment on consent against Bradaick-Zolla, who appeared without a lawyer and neither admitted nor denied the allegations. On 16 June 2020 the court entered a consent injunction against Harrison, and two days later the SEC suspended her from appearing or practicing before it under its Rule 102(e) by agreement. On 26 December 2024 the clerk entered a civil judgment for the SEC against Daniels for $100,000. That one-page document does not say whether the sum is a penalty, disgorgement or something else, or whether he consented, so no money field is filled in. We did not see the amounts, if any, in the Bradaick-Zolla or Harrison judgments, and the allegations remain allegations for anyone who did not admit them.

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.

Shell factories — 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

2018-04-30 Litigation release published
2018-09-20 Court enters judgment and injunction by consent against Catherine Bradaick-Zolla
2020-06-16 Court enters consent injunction against Diane Harrison (SEC Rule 102(e) order follows 18 June 2020)
2024-12-26 Court enters $100,000 judgment against Michael Daniels

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

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.

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

Action	Agency	Filed	Technique	Penalty	Status
SEC v. Delaney Equity Group LLC, David C. Delaney and Ian C. Kass (reverse merger schemes, 2018)	SEC	2018-08-29	Reverse Merger Schemes , Shell Factories +1	—	settled
SEC v. Imran Husain, et al. (shell factories, 2017)	SEC	2017-05-24	Shell Factories , Undisclosed Control Blocks	—	filed
SEC v. Edward F. Panos, et al. (shell factories, 2016)	SEC	2016-12-20	Shell Factories , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$1.4m	judgment
SEC v. Michael J. Muellerleile, Esq. and M2 Law Professional Corp. (shell factories, 2016)	SEC	2016-12-16	Shell Factories , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$70k	settled
SEC v. Airborne Wireless Network and others (pump and dump, 2025)	SEC	2025-02-07	Pump And Dump , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$22.6m	judgment
SEC v. Timothy Page, Trevor Page and others (boiler rooms, 2024)	SEC	2024-11-20	Boiler Rooms , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$7.7m	judgment

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.