SEC v. Troy Joseph Flowers, Sean Nevett and Fruition Inc. (undisclosed control blocks, 2017)

Judgment entered

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In July 2017 the SEC sued Troy Flowers, Sean Nevett and Fruition Inc., alleging they hid control of the shells Licont and Artec Global Media behind nominee accounts and sold for about $3.8 million. A final judgment as to Nevett entered on January 10, 2019 imposes a penny stock bar, disgorgement of $3,684,954 with interest, shared with Flowers and Fruition, and a $310,000 penalty. The judgments against Flowers and Fruition were not read.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$310k

Disgorgement

$3.7m

Prejudgment interest

$194k

Total relief

$4.2m

Alleged gain

$3.8m

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 on July 19, 2017 (litigation release 23881) a complaint filed in the Southern District of California against Flowers, Nevett and Flowers's company Fruition Inc., formerly Seacoast Advisors.

The SEC alleges that Flowers and Nevett concealed their control and ownership of Licont and Artec Global Media by holding shares in accounts in the names of other people and entities, then made manipulative trades from those accounts to create a false appearance of active trading and inflate prices, before selling their own shares to investors who were left with nearly worthless stock. It alleges proceeds of about $3.8 million, mostly traded from their home offices, and that Nevett impersonated a nominee account holder in dealings with brokers. The charges are Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, Sections 9(a)(1) and 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5, and the SEC seeks injunctions, disgorgement, penalties and penny-stock bars.

This library tags the matter as undisclosed control blocks. The record's defendant field held only "Troy Joseph Flowers, et al." The case was pending at the date of the release; see the outcome below.

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.

Outcome: the final judgment as to Nevett, filed in the Southern District of California on January 10, 2019, permanently bars him from participating in penny stock offerings and makes him liable, jointly and severally with Flowers and Fruition, for $3,684,954 in disgorgement plus $194,443.31 in prejudgment interest ($3,879,397.31 in total). It separately orders Nevett to pay a $310,000 civil penalty. The record stores the joint disgorgement once, with Nevett's penalty. The judgments against Flowers and Fruition were not opened, so any penalties on them are not included, and the document does not state that Nevett consented. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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.

• Undisclosed control blocks — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2017-07-19 Litigation release published
2. 2019-01-10 Final judgment entered as to Sean P. Nevett

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 Sean P. Nevett (S.D. Cal.)

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. submit a correction.