SEC v. Murchinson Ltd. and Marc Bistricer and Paul Zogala (naked short selling debate, 2021)

Settled

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In August 2021 the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an administrative order with Murchinson, Marc Bistricer and Paul Zogala, finding they caused a hedge fund's brokers to mismark short sales as long and to sell without a locate. The relief is $7 million disgorgement, $1,078,183 interest and $900,000 in penalties.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$900k

Disgorgement

$7m

Prejudgment interest

$1.1m

Total relief

$9m

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 August 17, 2021 as release 34-92684. The respondents named are Murchinson Ltd., Marc Bistricer and Paul Zogala (2 individuals, 1 entity).

This library tags the matter as naked short selling debate, 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 combines the respondents: disgorgement of $7,000,000 and interest of $1,078,183 payable jointly and severally, and penalties of $800,000 (Murchinson), $75,000 (Bistricer) and $25,000 (Zogala).

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.

• The naked short selling debate — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2021-08-17 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

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 order

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.