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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has permanently banned Brehnen Knight, a California man charged alongside a group of Canadians for a $6.6-million pump-and-dump scheme run partly through Stockpalooza.com, a paid touting website. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The SEC said that the group, which included since-banned Ontario lawyer Ashmit Patel, boosted companies with claims like "this stock could catapult by up to 155%." At the same time, they were secretly dumping hundreds of thousands of shares, some through unregistered offshore sales, according to the SEC.

The ban for Mr. Knight is contained in a settlement that the SEC released on Monday, May 5. The ban applies to penny stocks and includes serving as an officer or director. In addition, Mr. Knight has agreed to disgorge $385,890 in gains, plus $59,693 in interest.

Monday's settlement is a footnote to a case in which a handful of Canadians were fined and banned. Among them was Mr. Patel, who was accused of unloading $1.1-million worth of shares in the scheme. The SEC won a $1.3-million judgment against him on April 15, 2024, with that judgment including a permanent ban as well. For Mr. Patel, the SEC sanctions were just part of his punishment -- he also received three years of probation after pleading guilty to related criminal charges.

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