SEC v. Shawn C. Cutting (2021)

Judgment entered

✓ 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-shawn-c-cutting-2021) by email

In March 2021 the SEC sued Idaho man Shawn Cutting over an alleged crypto fund that raised at least $6.9 million from more than 450 investors. After the court granted the SEC summary judgment on liability, a March 4, 2024 order imposed $5,257,563 in disgorgement, $127,454.58 in interest and a $6,899,969 penalty. The SEC lists the qualifying judgment as dated March 29, 2024.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$6.9m

Disgorgement

$5.3m

Prejudgment interest

$127k

Total relief

$12.3m

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

The SEC announced the case on March 11, 2021 (LR-25046) in the District of Idaho, covering October 2017 to at least May 2020. The complaint alleged he sent fictitious updates touting gains over 50% in a month and prolonged the fraud with some Ponzi-like payments.

The Ponzi tag is removed because the release is headed an offering fraud involving a digital asset trading fund.

Outcome. The court granted the SEC summary judgment on liability, finding that Cutting violated the antifraud provisions and the registration provisions of the Securities Act. In a memorandum decision and order dated March 4, 2024 it then granted the SEC's motion for remedies: a permanent injunction, disgorgement of $5,257,563 with prejudgment interest of $127,454.58, and a third-tier civil penalty of $6,899,969, equal to his gross pecuniary gain. The same order made the relief defendants Janine Cutting, Golden Cross Investments, Lake View Trust and Tyson Trust disgorge smaller sums (about $880,000 in total, plus interest) and held Crypto Traders Management liable jointly with Cutting; those amounts are not added to the figures stored here. The court noted it could revisit the penalty if he showed he could not pay it. The SEC's whistleblower notice dates the qualifying judgment March 29, 2024, which is the date recorded; this was a litigated result, not a consent.

Timeline

1. 2021-03-11 Litigation release published
2. 2024-03-04 Court grants SEC motion for remedies (memorandum decision and order)
3. 2024-03-29 Qualifying judgment date per SEC whistleblower notice

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
• Memorandum decision and order on remedies (D. Idaho, Dkt. 115)
• SEC whistleblower notice 2024-056

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.