Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. Jonathan William Mikula, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2022)

Settled

Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.

In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an action with Jonathan William Mikula, et al., alleging conduct this library classifies as paid stock promotion. The release records a civil penalty of $776,932. A parallel criminal matter is referenced in the release.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-25541
Date filed 2022-09-30
Date resolved 2022-09-30
Status settled
Criminal parallel Yes
Bars imposed conduct-based injunction
Defendants Jonathan William Mikula, et al. (individual)
Techniques Paid stock promotion

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$777k
Disgorgement
Prejudgment interest
Total relief
$777k
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 September 30, 2022 as release LR-25541. The respondents named are Jonathan William Mikula, et al. (1 individual, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as 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 relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $776,932. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

Non-monetary relief recorded: conduct-based injunction.

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.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2022-09-30 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. Joshua A. Weiss (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-07-10 Paid Stock Promotion judgment
SEC v. Stephen J. Czarnik (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-06-29 Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions judgment
SEC v. Vestech Partners LLC and others (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-04-08 Paid Stock Promotion settled
SEC v. Justin Sun, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., Rainberry, Inc., and DeAndre Cortez Way (paid stock promotion, 2026) SEC 2026-03-05 Paid Stock Promotion , Wash Trading judgment
SEC v. George John Drazenovic (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-12-19 Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump judgment
SEC v. Andrew Scott Corbman (paid stock promotion, 2025) SEC 2025-12-03 Paid Stock Promotion judgment

Record added September 8, 2026. submit a correction.