SEC v. Henry Sargent, Joseph Tomasek, Patrick Giordano, Frederick Mintz and Alan Fraade (undisclosed control blocks, 2019)

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.

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In June 2019 the SEC charged five people in Massachusetts federal court over BMP Holdings, alleging Henry Sargent issued its shares to friends and family as nominees, an attorney helped file a registration statement falsely saying Sargent did not control them, and the shell was merged into PixarBio, yielding over $1 million. Two of the five, lawyers Frederick Mintz and Alan Fraade, consented to a final judgment on 14 September 2020 with $28,785.96 in disgorgement and interest. The SEC said its case against the others was continuing, and no outcome for them was found.

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 on June 27, 2019 (litigation release 24516) a complaint filed in the District of Massachusetts against Sargent, attorney Joseph Tomasek, Patrick Giordano, Frederick Mintz and Alan Fraade.

The SEC alleges that Sargent created BMP Holdings and issued its shares to friends, family and co-workers in order to manufacture shares to sell later, that the Form S-1 Tomasek helped file falsely said the shareholders held the shares for investment and that Sargent did not control them, and that the others helped merge BMP into PixarBio, a private company the SEC had already charged. It alleges the shares were then moved to Sargent, Giordano and a PixarBio defendant, and that Sargent and Giordano made over $1 million. The complaint charges Section 17(a), Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5 and Sections 5(a) and 5(c), and sought injunctions, disgorgement, penalties, cancellation of remaining PixarBio stock and penny-stock bars. These are allegations; no judgment against Sargent, Tomasek or Giordano was found.

This library tags the matter as undisclosed control blocks. The record's defendant field held only "Henry Sargent et al."

Outcome (partial). The SEC's September 2020 release says the District of Massachusetts entered a final judgment on 14 September 2020 against Mintz and Fraade, who consented without admitting or denying. It enjoins them from the antifraud and registration provisions charged, bars them from giving legal services on securities registration exemptions, and makes them jointly liable for $28,785.96 in disgorgement and interest, with no penalty because of their financial condition; the SEC also suspended them from practising before it in a separate proceeding. The release says litigation against the remaining defendants, including Sargent, Tomasek and Giordano, was ongoing, and I found no later release, so the status of the record stays at filed. Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome for Sargent, Tomasek or Giordano found in the SEC pages available.

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 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.

• Undisclosed control blocks — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2019-06-27 Litigation release published
2. 2020-09-14 Final consent judgment entered against Frederick Mintz and Alan Fraade ($28,785.96 disgorgement and interest)

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 24900 (Mintz and Fraade 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. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.