SEC v. Philip Verges, James D. Tilton, Jr., Robert F. Malin, Linda Malin and Blue Citi, LLC (pump and dump, 2023)

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 2, 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 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Philip Verges, James Tilton, Robert and Linda Malin and Blue Citi, LLC in the Northern District of Texas over an alleged scheme to pump and dump more than $112 million of stock in five penny stock companies between 2017 and 2022, naming four Verges- and Tilton-owned companies as relief defendants. The complaint alleges nominees sold over $52 million of discounted shares and kicked back part of the proceeds to Verges. The charges are allegations.

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 September 26, 2023 as release LR-25853. The respondents named are Philip Verges, James D. Tilton, Jr., Robert F. Malin, Linda Malin, Blue Citi, LLC, SMEA2Z, LLC, 143 Partners LLC, West Cucharras, LLC and JDT Trading, LLC (4 individuals, 5 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas.

The complaint alleges Verges arranged for 5.2 billion discounted shares to go to nominees, issued over 1,400 press releases to sustain a market, and received more than $19 million, with Blue Citi receiving over $35 million and JDT over $16 million. The Malins and Tilton are alleged to have knowingly taken part. This library tags the matter as pump and dump.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

Non-monetary relief recorded: officer-and-director bar, penny stock bar.

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.

This matter is at the allegation stage. Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.

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. 2023-09-26 Litigation release published

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

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.