SEC v. Stephen J. Czarnik (paid stock promotion, 2026)

Judgment entered

Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.

In 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a judgment against Stephen J. Czarnik, alleging conduct this library classifies as paid stock promotion and unregistered distributions. The release does not state a monetary figure that we were able to extract.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	SEC
Release number	34-105800
Date filed	2026-06-29
Date resolved	2026-06-29
Status	judgment
Asset class	equities
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	Stephen J. Czarnik (individual)
Techniques	Paid stock promotion , Unregistered distributions

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on June 29, 2026 as release 34-105800. The respondents named are Stephen J. Czarnik (1 individual, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as paid stock promotion and unregistered distributions, 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.

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.

Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Unregistered distributions — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

2026-06-29 Administrative proceeding instituted (102e)

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 order

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. Neil Bergquist; Up and Global SEZC; Coinme, Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023)	SEC	2023-04-28	Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions	$150k	settled
SEC v. Justin Sun et al. (paid stock promotion, 2023)	SEC	2023-03-24	Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions +1	—	settled
SEC v. Wilson-Davis & Co., Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2019)	SEC	2019-05-15	Paid Stock Promotion , Pump And Dump +1	—	settled
SEC v. Micheal A. Skerry (newsletter scalping, 2017)	SEC	2017-09-29	Newsletter Scalping , Paid Stock Promotion +1	$100k	judgment
SEC v. Galena Biopharma, Inc. and Mark J. Ahn (paid stock promotion, 2017)	SEC	2017-04-10	Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions	—	settled
SEC v. Empire Stock Transfer, Inc. and Matthew J. Blevins (paid stock promotion, 2016)	SEC	2016-12-16	Paid Stock Promotion , Unregistered Distributions	$50k	settled

Record added September 8, 2026. submit a correction.