Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. Roger E. Dobrovodsky (unregistered distributions, 2021)

Settled

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 2021 the SEC settled an administrative order against Roger E. Dobrovodsky for selling unregistered StarGrower offerings as an unregistered broker, with $203,981 disgorgement, $15,802 interest and a $150,000 penalty.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number 3-20493
Date filed 2021-08-30
Date resolved 2021-08-30
Status settled
Asset class equities
Criminal parallel Yes: charged (Blankenbaker, the principal of the offerings (not Dobrovodsky); two counts of wire fraud and one of money laundering), 2021-03-31
Bars imposed officer-and-director bar, penny stock bar
Defendants Roger E. Dobrovodsky (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged Advisers Act s.206 ; Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Exchange Act s.15(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
$150k
Disgorgement
$204k
Prejudgment interest
$15.8k
Total relief
$370k
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 August 30, 2021 the SEC accepted a settlement with Roger E. Dobrovodsky. The order finds that from August 2016 to May 2019 he acted as an unregistered broker and sold StarGrower Commercial and StarGrower Asset offerings, in violation of Securities Act Sections 5(a) and 5(c), and that he failed to disclose to advisory clients a conflict from a debt owed him by the offerings' principal. He is ordered to pay $203,981 in disgorgement, $15,802 in interest and a $150,000 penalty. The record previously showed $4,924,275 and $272,366, which were a co-defendant's joint figures from another case, and a $50,000 penalty from his earlier federal case.

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.

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.

Timeline

  1. 2021-08-30 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.

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.

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.