SEC v. Mario Gogliormella, Steven Lacaj, and Karim Ibrahim a/k/a/ Chris Hayes (boiler rooms, 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-mario-gogliormella-steven-lacaj-boiler-rooms-2024) by email

In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought an action against Mario Gogliormella, Steven Lacaj, and Karim Ibrahim a/k/a/ Chris Hayes, alleging conduct this library classifies as boiler rooms. No monetary relief has been recorded at this stage; the matter is an allegation and remains unproven. 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-26021
Date filed	2024-06-12
Status	filed
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	Yes: charged (Mario Gogliormella, Steven Lacaj and Karim Ibrahim (indictment unsealed)), U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 2024-06-12
Defendants	Mario Gogliormella (individual) ; Steven Lacaj (individual) ; Karim Ibrahim a/k/a Chris Hayes (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Advisers Act s.206 ; Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.15(a) ; Exchange Act s.20(a) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques	Boiler rooms

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 June 12, 2024 as release LR-26021. The respondents named are Mario Gogliormella, Steven Lacaj, and Karim Ibrahim a/k/a/ Chris Hayes (2 individuals, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as boiler rooms, 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.

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.

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. A May 28, 2025 filing in the related receivership case (Document 181, S.D.N.Y. No. 23-cv-5326) states that the SEC's civil action against the three individuals is stayed in its entirety until the parallel criminal case, United States v. Gogliormella et al., No. 24-cr-362 (S.D.N.Y.), concludes, with the criminal trial then set for March 9, 2026. No SEC litigation release reports a judgment or settlement in the civil case. We could not open a primary source for the criminal outcome, so none is recorded here.

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.

Boiler rooms — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

2024-06-12 Litigation release published
2025-05-28 Receivership filing reports the SEC civil action stayed pending the criminal case

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. Andrew Spaventa and others (boiler rooms, 2026)	SEC	2026-08-17	Boiler Rooms	—	filed
SEC v. Timothy Page, Trevor Page and others (boiler rooms, 2024)	SEC	2024-11-20	Boiler Rooms , Undisclosed Control Blocks	$7.7m	judgment
SEC v. Legend Venture Partners LLC (boiler rooms, 2023)	SEC	2023-07-11	Boiler Rooms	—	filed
SEC v. Vuuzle Media Corp., Vuuzle Media Corp. Limited, Ronald Shane Flynn, and Richard Marchitto (boiler rooms, 2023)	SEC	2023-06-27	Boiler Rooms	$25.8m	judgment
SEC v. Matthew Nicosia, William Reininger, Fabrizio Di Carlo, and Ronald Touchard (boiler rooms, 2023)	SEC	2023-04-10	Boiler Rooms	$223k	judgment
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

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