SEC v. Abraxas J. DiScala (pump and dump, 2024)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 2, 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-discala-et-al-pump-and-dump-2024) by email

In September 2024 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a September 13 final consent judgment in the Eastern District of New York against Abraxas J. DiScala, the eighth and last defendant in the CodeSmart case, enjoining him, barring him from penny stock offerings and from serving as an officer or director, and ordering over $2.4 million in disgorgement and interest that is deemed satisfied by a criminal restitution order.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$2.4m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$2.4m

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 September 20, 2024 as release LR-26115. The respondent named is Abraxas J. DiScala (1 individual, 0 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.

The complaint alleged that DiScala and co-defendants took control of three million supposedly free-trading CodeSmart shares through an opinion letter, sold them in an unregistered offering, promoted the stock with misleading press releases and dumped their shares as the price crashed. CodeSmart's earlier reverse merger is background to the facts, not a charged scheme. This library tags the matter as pump and dump and unregistered distributions.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

The relief recorded in our data is disgorgement of about $2.4 million including prejudgment interest, deemed satisfied by the restitution order in the parallel criminal case. 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.

Non-monetary relief recorded: penny stock bar.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

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

Timeline

1. 2024-09-20 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.