SEC v. Nutra Pharma Corp. et al (unregistered distributions, 2018)

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.

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In September 2018 the SEC sued Nutra Pharma, its CEO Rik Deitsch and consultant Sean McManus over allegedly misleading press releases and unregistered stock distribution. After a partial summary judgment in 2022, consent judgments followed in March to August 2024, with combined disgorgement of about $570,000, interest of about $65,000 and penalties of $135,500.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	LR-24295
Date filed	2018-09-28
Date resolved	2024-08-28
Status	settled
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	No
Bars imposed	penny stock bar, officer-and-director bar, conduct-based injunction
Defendants	Nutra Pharma Corp. (entity) ; Rik Deitsch (individual) ; Sean McManus (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.13(a) ; Exchange Act s.13(d) and 13(g) ; Exchange Act s.15(a) ; Exchange Act s.16(a) ; Exchange Act s.9(a)(2) ; Securities Act s.17(a) ; Securities Act s.5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques	Unregistered distributions

What was ordered

Civil penalty: $136k
Disgorgement: $570k
Prejudgment interest: $64.9k
Total relief: $771k
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

On September 28, 2018 the SEC filed a complaint in the Eastern District of New York against Nutra Pharma Corp., its CEO Rik Deitsch and consultant Sean McManus. It alleges that six press releases misled investors about the company's cobra venom business while it and Deitsch engaged in an unregistered distribution of its stock to retail investors, that Deitsch traded to prop up the price, and that McManus misled investors while acting as an unregistered broker. These are allegations. The record previously showed the defendants as 'Nutra Pharma Corp. et al'.

This library tags the matter as unregistered distributions, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Three SEC releases show how the case ended for all three defendants. On 31 August 2022 the court granted the SEC summary judgment on some registration and reporting claims against Nutra Pharma and Deitsch. In March 2024 it entered partial consent judgments, and on 13 May 2024 final consent judgments against Deitsch ($44,046.28 disgorgement, $5,013.49 interest, $30,000 penalty, with officer-and-director and penny stock bars) and McManus ($5,500 disgorgement, $625.03 interest, $5,500 penalty, two-year penny stock bar). On 28 August 2024 the court entered a final consent judgment against the company for $520,940 in disgorgement, $59,295.05 in interest and $100,000 in penalties. The money fields sum all three, and they consented without admitting or denying the allegations. The releases mention no criminal case.

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.

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

Timeline

2018-09-28 Litigation release published
2022-08-31 Court grants SEC partial summary judgment against Nutra Pharma and Deitsch
2024-05-13 Final consent judgments entered against Deitsch and McManus
2024-08-28 Final consent judgment entered against Nutra Pharma

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.

Same matter

The library links these 4 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.

Date filed	Agency	Record	Status
2018-09-28	SEC	SEC v. Nutra Pharma Corp. et al (unregistered distributions, 2018)(this record)	Settled
2022-09-16	SEC	SEC v. Nutra Pharma Corp. et al (unregistered distributions, 2022)	Judgment entered
2024-05-15	SEC	SEC v. Nutra Pharma Corp. et al (unregistered distributions, 2024)	Judgment entered
2024-08-30	SEC	SEC v. Nutra Pharma Corporation, et al. (unregistered distributions, 2024)	Judgment entered

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.

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

Action	Agency	Filed	Technique	Penalty	Status
SEC v. Zachary Miller (unregistered distributions, 2026)	SEC	2026-03-05	Unregistered Distributions	—	settled
SEC v. David Hudzik (unregistered distributions, 2025)	SEC	2025-12-23	Unregistered Distributions	$70k	judgment
SEC v. Ongkaruck Sripetch and others (pump and dump, 2025)	SEC	2025-06-20	Pump And Dump , Unregistered Distributions	$204k	judgment
SEC v. Peter Scalise III and The3rdBevco Inc. (unregistered distributions, 2025)	SEC	2025-06-17	Unregistered Distributions	$236k	settled
SEC v. Investview, Inc. (unregistered distributions, 2025)	SEC	2025-01-17	Unregistered Distributions	$375k	settled
SEC v. Tai Mo Shan Limited (unregistered distributions, 2024)	SEC	2024-12-20	Unregistered Distributions	$36.7m	settled

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.