SEC v. Eytan Bar (2017)
Settled
Checked against the primary document on October 3, 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 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an action with Eytan Bar, chief executive of Mer Telemanagement Solutions, over two materially false and misleading press releases about a supposed contract with an almost empty company. The release records a civil penalty of $30,000, disgorgement of $47,343, prejudgment interest of $2,666.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | 3-17798 |
| Date filed | 2017-01-18 |
| Date resolved | 2017-01-18 |
| Status | settled |
| Asset class | equities |
| Venue | Nasdaq |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | officer-and-director bar |
| Defendants | Eytan Bar |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.13(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) |
| Techniques |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- $30k
- Disgorgement
- $47.3k
- Prejudgment interest
- $2.7k
- Total relief
- $80k
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on January 18, 2017 as release 3-17798. The respondent named is Eytan Bar (1 individual). The Commission found that Bar, as chief executive, reviewed and approved press releases of October 15, 2013 and January 22, 2014, which MTS furnished to the Commission and incorporated into registration statements, and which made it appear the company had a significant three-year contract with a company named SBC that had little or no operations and whose name resembled that of a large telecommunications firm. Bar consented to a cease-and-desist order under Securities Act Section 17(a) and Exchange Act Sections 10(b) and 13(a), a five-year officer-and-director bar, disgorgement of $47,343, prejudgment interest of $2,666 and a $30,000 penalty.
The order concerns misleading disclosure by an issuer's chief executive, not trading on confidential information, so this library no longer tags it as insider trading. The releases were genuine company filings rather than fabricated announcements, so it is not a fake press release case either, and it carries no technique tag.
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.
Timeline
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.