SEC v. Jonathan Farber, Aarif Jamani, Brian Keasberry (pump and dump, 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.

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In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a release alleging a County Line Energy accumulation, manipulation and sale scheme. This library classifies the conduct as pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks. No monetary relief has been recorded at this stage; the matter is an allegation and remains unproven.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$5m

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 January 16, 2024 as release LR-25926. The respondents named are Jonathan Farber, Aarif Jamani, Brian Keasberry (1 individual, 0 entities).

The complaint alleges that three defendants accumulated and manipulated County Line Energy stock, paid for an online promotional campaign and concealed their control. This release does not allege that the payment was concealed (the 2026 Keasberry release in the same case does, and carries the paid-promotion tag), so this record is tagged pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks.

This library tags the matter as pump and dump and undisclosed control blocks, 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.

Non-monetary relief recorded: officer-and-director bar, penny stock bar.

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.

The SEC reported on August 21, 2026 that the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against Brian Keasberry on August 20, 2026, enjoining him from violating Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) and Section 10(b) with Rule 10b-5 and ordering disgorgement of $37,500, prejudgment interest of $12,864 and a $37,500 penalty, with penny stock and officer-and-director bars. The release describes the SEC's litigation against the other defendants as ongoing.

This record's status therefore stays at filed: the source shows an outcome for Keasberry only, and nothing on Jonathan Farber or Aarif Jamani. Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome found for those two on SEC pages.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2024-01-16 Litigation release published
2. 2026-08-20 Final consent judgment entered against Brian Keasberry only

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 reporting the outcome

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.

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.