SEC v. Drew Morgan Ciccarelli (pump and dump, 2020)

Settled

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In September 2020 the SEC charged Drew Morgan Ciccarelli over a paid promotion of Rarus Technologies stock. On 21 August 2024 the District of Massachusetts entered a consent judgment with a penny stock bar and US$35,000 in disgorgement plus US$13,364.41 in interest, treated as satisfied by a criminal forfeiture order.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$35k

Prejudgment interest

$13.4k

Total relief

$48.4k

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 30, 2020 as release LR-24940. The respondents named are Drew Morgan Ciccarelli (1 individual, 0 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts.

This library tags the matter as pump and dump, 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.

Outcome. SEC release LR-26087 says the court entered a final judgment on 21 August 2024, to which Ciccarelli consented without admitting or denying the allegations. It enjoins him from violating the registration and antifraud provisions, imposes a penny stock bar, and orders disgorgement of US$35,000 and prejudgment interest of US$13,364.41, deemed satisfied by the forfeiture order in the parallel criminal case. The release also says that in the criminal case he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering and on 25 June 2024 was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, two years' probation and forfeiture of US$500,000.

The sentence is recorded as 12 months for a year and a day. The SEC release does not report a civil penalty.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique 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.

Timeline

1. 2020-09-30 Litigation release published
2. 2024-06-25 Sentenced in the parallel criminal case to a year and a day in prison (as reported in SEC LR-26087)
3. 2024-08-21 Final consent judgment entered (SEC LR-26087, published 30 August 2024)

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
• SEC litigation release LR-26087 (final judgment)

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.