SEC v. Minerco, Inc., Bobby Shumake Japhia, and Julius Makiri Jenge (pump and dump, 2024)

Settled

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In October 2024 the SEC charged Minerco, Inc., Bobby Shumake Japhia and Julius Makiri Jenge in the District of Columbia over an alleged pump-and-dump of Minerco stock built on a psilocybin-business story and a false $1 billion valuation. On January 23, 2025 the court entered consent bifurcated judgments against Minerco and Jenge, with remedies reserved; the docket shows no outcome for Shumake Japhia, whose case is stayed behind a criminal matter.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 October 9, 2024 as release LR-26150. The respondents named are Minerco, Inc., Bobby Shumake Japhia and Julius Makiri Jenge (2 individuals, 1 entity). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.

The complaint alleges that from 2019 to 2021 the defendants promoted Minerco with false statements, including that its charter was active when it had been revoked, while Shumake had an offshore company dump his shares. The release mentions dormant shell companies only in an investor warning and says nothing about a custodianship, so this library does not tag shell hijacking. This library tags the matter as pump and dump.

The conduct is recorded against equities, with OTC identified in the release.

Non-monetary relief recorded: conduct-based injunction, officer-and-director bar.

Outcome. The docket in SEC v. Minerco (D.D.C. 1:24-cv-02870) shows the SEC filing consent bifurcated judgments for Minerco, Inc. and Julius Makiri Jenge on January 21, 2025, and the court entering judgments for the SEC against each of them on January 23, 2025. A bifurcated judgment settles liability while leaving remedies such as monetary relief for later; the text was not available to us and we found no later order setting amounts, so no money or bars are stored. The same docket shows the United States intervening and the civil case being stayed on December 4, 2024, and shows no judgment against Bobby Shumake Japhia, so this outcome covers Minerco and Jenge only, and Shumake Japhia's claims remain unresolved on the docket we saw.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2024-10-09 Litigation release published
2. 2025-01-23 Consent bifurcated judgments entered against Minerco, Inc. and Julius Makiri Jenge

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
• Docket, SEC v. Minerco (D.D.C. 1:24-cv-02870), via CourtListener

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.