SEC v. Robert W. Murray (sham tender offers, 2017)

Settled

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In November 2017 the SEC reported that Robert W. Murray pleaded guilty to securities fraud after the SEC sued him over a fake EDGAR tender offer for Fitbit that he used to trade call options for about $3,100. A consent final judgment in the SEC case was filed on August 13, 2018.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

$3.1k

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 SEC announced this development on November 9, 2017 as release LR-23983, in SEC v. Murray, filed May 19, 2017. It reports that Murray pleaded guilty on November 7, 2017 to parallel criminal charges. The complaint alleges he bought Fitbit call options minutes before a fake tender offer by a sham company, filed on EDGAR, became public on November 10, 2016, and sold them after the price spiked for a profit of about $3,100. This library tags the matter as EDGAR filing fraud and sham tender offers; the conduct is recorded against options. The criminal case is recorded separately. This record and the March 2018 record for the same case (LR-24075) describe the same SEC action.

Outcome: the final judgment as to Murray filed August 13, 2018 in the Southern District of New York records that he consented to its entry. It permanently enjoins him from violating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, Section 17(a) and Section 14(e) and Rule 14e-8. The SEC's later release in the related Burns case (LR-24557, August 2019) describes Murray as having settled and been sentenced to prison in the parallel criminal case. The copy of the judgment we opened omits the middle pages, so any disgorgement or penalty is not recorded here, and the signing date is illegible; the filing date is used.

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.

• EDGAR filing fraud — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Sham tender offers — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2017-11-09 Litigation release published
2. 2018-08-13 Consent final judgment filed against Murray (S.D.N.Y.)

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
• Final judgment as to Robert W. Murray (S.D.N.Y., filed August 13, 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.

Same matter

The library links these 5 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 20, 2026. submit a correction.