SEC v. John S. Clayton and others (insider trading, 2024)

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.

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.

Report an error in this record (sec-john-s-clayton-insider-trading-2024) by email

In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought an action against John S. Clayton and 8 others, alleging conduct this library classifies as insider trading and paid stock promotion. No monetary relief has been recorded at this stage; the matter is an allegation and remains unproven.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-26193
Date filed	2024-12-11
Court	U.S. District Court, District of Utah
Status	filed
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	John S. Clayton (individual) ; First Equity Holdings Corp. (entity) ; Standard Registrar and Transfer Co., Inc. (entity) ; Daniel W. Jackson (individual) ; Donald H. Perry (individual) ; Clark M. Mower (individual) ; Timothy J. Rieu (individual) ; Chesapeake Group, Inc. (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.13(d) and 13(g) ; Exchange Act s.16(a) ; Exchange Act s.20(e) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.17(b) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques	Insider trading , Paid stock promotion

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
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 December 11, 2024 as release LR-26193. The respondents named are John S. Clayton and 8 others (6 individuals, 3 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, District of Utah.

This library tags the matter as insider trading and paid stock promotion, 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.

This matter is at the allegation stage. Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.

Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome found on SEC pages or the court docket. The docket (D. Utah 2:24-cv-00918) shows the case in expert discovery, with an amended scheduling order of August 2026 setting expert discovery to October 2026 and motions to November 2026, and discovery disputes continuing into September 2026; we saw no judgment against John S. Clayton, First Equity Holdings Corp. or the other lead defendants.

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.

Insider trading — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

2024-12-11 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.

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.

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Action	Agency	Filed	Technique	Penalty	Status
SEC v. Trijya Vakil and Neeraj Visen (insider trading, 2026)	SEC	2026-09-04	Insider Trading	$109k	settled
CFTC v. Gabriel Perez (insider trading, 2026)	CFTC	2026-08-28	Insider Trading	$65k	judgment
SEC v. Brian Keasberry (paid stock promotion, 2026)	SEC	2026-08-21	Paid Stock Promotion	$37.5k	judgment
SEC v. Gavin Wolfe and others (insider trading, 2026)	SEC	2026-08-21	Insider Trading	—	filed
SEC v. Jesse R. Mitchell (insider trading, 2026)	SEC	2026-08-21	Insider Trading	—	filed
SEBI v. Arun Kumar Somani and others (insider trading review, Indian Oil Corporation, 2026)	SEBI (India)	2026-08-13	Insider Trading	—	dismissed

Record added September 10, 2026. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.