SEC v. Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore (pump and dump, 2019)

Settled

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In March 2019 the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its Massachusetts case against Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore over a YaFarm Technologies pump-and-dump had concluded. Both had settled in 2015 with injunctions and bars; Morelli was sentenced to 84 months in a parallel criminal case over a similar scheme, and Buonocore's criminal case ended with his death. The SEC dropped its pursuit of disgorgement and penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 March 20, 2019 as release LR-24429. The respondents named are Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore (2 individuals, 0 entities).

The release describes the YaFarm pump-and-dump that defrauded investors in a purported stem cell company, and says the SEC's earlier settlements enjoined both men, barred promotional activity, officer-and-director service and penny stock offerings. On July 26, 2018 Morelli was sentenced to 84 months and a $40,000 fine for a similar scheme in Super Nova Resources. The SEC told the court on December 11, 2018 it would forgo disgorgement and penalties. This library tags the matter as pump and dump.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

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.

The action was dismissed. We keep dismissed matters in the library precisely so that the outcome is visible alongside the original allegation.

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. 2019-03-20 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.

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.