SEC v. Domenic Calabrigo, Curtis Lehner, Courtney Vasseur and Hasan Sario (pump and dump, 2022)
Alleged — pending
These are allegations. SEC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.
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.
In April 2022 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Domenic Calabrigo, Curtis Lehner, Courtney Vasseur and Hasan Sario in the Southern District of New York over alleged pump-and-dump schemes in thinly traded microcap stocks between 2016 and 2018, with net proceeds of over $39 million, and obtained an asset freeze. The U.S. Attorney announced parallel criminal charges. The charges are allegations.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | LR-25372 |
| Date filed | 2022-04-19 |
| Status | filed |
| Asset class | equities |
| Criminal parallel | Yes: charged (Calabrigo, Lehner, Sario and Vasseur), U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 2022-04-19 |
| Bars imposed | penny stock bar |
| Defendants | Domenic Calabrigo ; Curtis Lehner ; Courtney Vasseur ; Hasan Sario |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.9(a)(2) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 |
| Techniques | Pump and dump , Undisclosed control blocks |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- —
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- —
- Alleged gain
- $39m
What is alleged to have happened
the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on April 19, 2022 as release LR-25372. The respondents named are Domenic Calabrigo, Curtis Lehner, Courtney Vasseur and Hasan Sario (4 individuals, 0 entities).
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 conduct is recorded against equities.
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.
This matter is at the allegation stage. Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.
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
- 2022-04-19 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.
Related actions
Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.
| Action | Agency | Filed | Technique | Penalty | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. Kevan Casey, Adrian James, Jonathan Friedlander and Robert Wheat (pump and dump, 2024) | SEC | 2024-08-09 | Pump And Dump , Undisclosed Control Blocks | — | filed |
| SEC v. Giguiere et al. (undisclosed control blocks, 2024) | SEC | 2024-06-13 | Undisclosed Control Blocks , Matched Orders +1 | $875k | judgment |
| SEC v. George Stubos, et al. (undisclosed control blocks, 2024) | SEC | 2024-04-15 | Undisclosed Control Blocks , Pump And Dump | — | judgment |
| SEC v. Jonathan Farber, Aarif Jamani, Brian Keasberry (pump and dump, 2024) | SEC | 2024-01-16 | Pump And Dump , Undisclosed Control Blocks | — | filed |
| SEC v. George Stubos (undisclosed control blocks, 2023) | SEC | 2023-09-12 | Undisclosed Control Blocks , Pump And Dump | — | judgment |