SEC v. Justin Samuel Cary (insider trading, 2017)

Settled

✓ 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-justin-samuel-cary-insider-trading-2017) by email

In September 2017 the SEC charged California accountant Justin Cary with buying 18,500 shares of Adaptive Medias six minutes after an email revealed a $1.50 per share takeover offer, earning $8,140. A consent final judgment filed January 5, 2018 orders $8,140.25 in disgorgement, $514.78 in interest and an $8,140.25 penalty, with a five-year officer-and-director bar.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$8.1k

Disgorgement

$8.1k

Prejudgment interest

$515

Total relief

$16.8k

Alleged gain

$8.1k

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 complaint alleged that on January 28, 2016, Cary, an accounting consultant, received the controller's email quoting an unreleased press release about the offer while the stock traded at $0.16, and bought shares from his personal account. After the announcement four days later the price rose 428 percent and he sold for a profit of $8,140.25.

Outcome: the final judgment, filed January 5, 2018 in the Central District of California, records that Cary consented without admitting or denying the allegations. It permanently enjoins him from violating Section 10(b), prohibits him for five years from acting as an officer or director of a public issuer, and holds him liable for disgorgement of $8,140.25 with prejudgment interest of $514.78 and a civil penalty of $8,140.25, a total of $16,795.28 payable in two installments. It does not show whether the payments were made.

This library tags the matter as insider trading, 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 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2017-09-21 Litigation release published
2. 2018-01-05 Consent final judgment filed (C.D. Cal.)

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
• Final judgment as to Justin Samuel Cary (C.D. Cal., January 5, 2018)

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. submit a correction.