SEC v. Morrie Tobin et al. (undisclosed control blocks, 2019)

Settled

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In November 2018 the SEC charged Morrie Tobin with secretly controlling two public companies and selling their stock through nominees, and in August 2019 it added two lawyers, Milan Patel and Matthew Ledvina. On 16 April 2021 a Massachusetts federal court entered consent final judgments against all three, with injunctions and penny stock bars. All three also pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$165m

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 August 30, 2019 as release LR-24583. The respondents named are Morrie Tobin et al. (1 individual, 0 entities).

The release reports an amended complaint adding two defendants who helped a reverse merger into a shell secretly controlled by Tobin. No promotion is described, so the paid-promotion tag has been replaced with undisclosed control blocks.

This library tags the matter as undisclosed control blocks and reverse merger schemes, 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: penny stock bar.

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.

Outcome. An April 2021 SEC release says the District of Massachusetts entered final judgments on 16 April 2021 against Tobin, Patel and Ledvina, who consented without admitting or denying the allegations. The judgments enjoin them from the registration and antifraud provisions charged and impose penny stock bars; the release states no disgorgement or penalty figures, so none are recorded. It also reports that all three pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal case: Tobin received 12 months and a day in prison, a $4 million forfeiture and a $100,000 fine, Patel 15 months, and Ledvina probation, with $1,908,583 in joint restitution. The sentence recorded here is Tobin's (12 months and a day, entered as 12). The outcome covers these three; the separate SEC action against Roger Knox and Wintercap SA, mentioned in the release, was not checked.

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 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2019-08-30 Litigation release published
2. 2021-04-16 Consent final judgments entered against Tobin, Patel and Ledvina with penny stock bars

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 25072 (final judgments)

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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.