SEC v. Jason McDiarmid, et al. (boiler rooms, 2017)
Judgment entered
Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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 September 2017 the SEC charged Jason McDiarmid, Kenneth Telford and Stop Sleep Go, Inc. (formerly Interactive Multi-Media Auction Corp.) over a pump-and-dump of the company's stock that allegedly included email blasts and a boiler room targeting seniors. Judgments were entered in October and November 2018 (default against McDiarmid and the company, consent by Telford), with about $3.3 million in penalties and $6.5 million in disgorgement across the two men.
The record
| Agency | SEC |
|---|---|
| Release number | LR-23953 |
| Date filed | 2017-09-29 |
| Date resolved | 2018-11-19 |
| Court | U.S. District Court, Central District of California |
| Status | judgment |
| Asset class | equities |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Bars imposed | officer-and-director bar (McDiarmid and Telford), penny stock bar (McDiarmid and Telford) |
| Defendants | Jason McDiarmid ; Kenneth George Cedric Telford ; Stop Sleep Go, Inc. |
| Cited as charged or alleged | Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.20(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 |
| Techniques | Boiler rooms , Pump and dump |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- $3.3m
- Disgorgement
- $6.5m
- Prejudgment interest
- $594k
- Total relief
- $10.4m
- Alleged gain
- $3.1m
What is alleged to have happened
The SEC announced this matter on September 29, 2017 as litigation release 23953. As alleged, the two men secretly ran the company behind a nominee chief executive, registered shares for nominee selling shareholders through a Form S-1 containing false statements and sham private placements, ran a promotional campaign of email blasts and a boiler room targeting seniors while the price rose from $0.93 to $1.62, and dumped their shares through nominees; McDiarmid is also alleged to have scripted false testimony. The boiler room is one element of a wider pump-and-dump, which is the main tag.
Outcome: SEC release LR-24398 (February 12, 2019) reports that the Central District of California entered a default judgment against McDiarmid on October 25, 2018, and on November 19, 2018 a judgment against Telford, who had consented without admitting or denying, and a default judgment against the company. The judgments enjoin all three from antifraud violations, enjoin the two men from violating the registration provision, and bar McDiarmid and Telford from serving as public company officers or directors and from penny stock offerings. McDiarmid was ordered to pay $3,177,268 in disgorgement, $291,035 in interest and a $1,644,766 penalty; Telford $3,316,235, $302,871 and $1,644,766. The money fields hold the sums across both men. The release gives no figures for the company, and does not say what was collected.
This library tags the matter as boiler rooms, pump and dump, based on the conduct the regulator describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.
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.
- Boiler rooms — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
- Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Timeline
- 2017-09-29 Litigation release published
- 2018-11-19 Judgments entered against Telford and the company; default judgment against McDiarmid entered October 25, 2018
Primary documents
Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.
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.
| Date filed | Agency | Record | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-09-29 | SEC | SEC v. Jason McDiarmid, et al. (boiler rooms, 2017) | Judgment entered |
| 2019-02-12 | SEC | SEC v. Jason McDiarmid, et al. (pump and dump, 2019) | Judgment entered |
Related actions
Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.
| Action | Agency | Filed | Technique | Penalty | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC v. Joseph R. Earle Jr, Barry D. Reagh, William Clayton, Francis T. Dudley, Steven E. Bryant, Upper Street Marketing, Inc. and Project Growth International, Inc. (boiler rooms, 2022) | SEC | 2022-12-05 | Boiler Rooms , Pump And Dump | — | filed |
| SEC v. Matthew Nicosia, William Reninger, Fabrizio Di Carlo, and Ronald Touchard (boiler rooms, 2022) | SEC | 2022-09-28 | Boiler Rooms , Pump And Dump | $453k | settled |
| SEC v. Francis Biller, et al. (pump and dump, 2022) | SEC | 2022-03-17 | Pump And Dump , Boiler Rooms | — | settled |
| SEC v. Talman Harris and Victor Alfaya (boiler rooms, 2019) | SEC | 2019-06-28 | Boiler Rooms , Pump And Dump | $500k | judgment |
| SEC v. Marcus A. Luna, et al. (boiler rooms, 2016) | SEC | 2016-09-30 | Boiler Rooms , Pump And Dump | $15k | judgment |
| SEC v. Jason A. Wallace (boiler rooms, 2016) | SEC | 2016-09-27 | Boiler Rooms , Pump And Dump | $435k | judgment |