SEC v. One or More Unknown Traders in the Securities of Fortress Investment Group, LLC (insider trading, 2017)

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.

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In February 2017 the SEC froze the assets of unknown foreign traders it said had traded Fortress Investment Group ahead of SoftBank's takeover announcement. In September 2018 the District of New Jersey dismissed the SEC's amended complaint without prejudice; I did not find how the case ended afterward.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$3.6m

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 February 28, 2017 as release LR-23760. The respondents named are One or More Unknown Traders in the Securities of Fortress Investment Group, LLC (0 individuals, 1 entity).

This library tags the matter as insider trading, 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.

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.

Status check. The court record I could open is a September 27, 2018 opinion of the District of New Jersey on motions to dismiss the SEC's amended complaint. It names Muhammad Ammar Khan, David Isaac Ettedgui, Creative Empire Global, Nacim Ould Kaddour, Lotus Trading, Kashif Qadri, Alda, Chaudhry Muhammad Zeeshan and Endeso among the defendants, and grants the motions in part and denies them in part. It dismisses the amended complaint without prejudice, which is not a final outcome on the merits. I found no later SEC release or court order showing a judgment, settlement or final dismissal. The allegations remain unproven. Checked on 2026-10-04: no final outcome found on SEC pages or in the opinion.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2017-02-28 Litigation release published
2. 2018-09-27 District of New Jersey opinion dismisses the amended complaint without prejudice

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
• District of New Jersey opinion on motions to dismiss (Sept. 27, 2018)

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 If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.