St. Julien et al.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26204 / December 23, 2024

Securities and Exchange Commission v. St. Julien et al., No. 16-civ-2193 (E.D.N.Y. filed May 3, 2016)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against ForceField Energy Defendant for Role in Offering Fraud

On December 23, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against Richard Brown, enjoining him from violating certain provisions of the federal securities laws.

According to the SEC's complaint, starting in 2014, Brown was involved in a scheme to deceive investors into buying shares of ForceField Energy Inc. ("ForceField Energy"). The SEC alleges that Brown was paid cash kickbacks in exchange for recommending and buying shares of ForceField Energy stock in his customers' accounts without disclosing to customers that he was being paid cash kickbacks.

The SEC's complaint charged Brown with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. On December 23, 2024, the Court entered a final judgment against Brown by consent in which he agreed to be permanently enjoined from violations of the charged provisions and to disgorge $30,000 in ill-gotten gains and prejudgment interest thereon, the payment of which was deemed satisfied by the restitution order in the parallel criminal proceeding, United States v. Mitchell, et al., Crim. No. 16-234 (BMC) (E.D.N.Y.).

In 2016 and 2017, the Court previously entered injunctions against Christopher Castaldo, Gerald J. Cocuzzo, Naveed A. Khan, Herschel (Tres) Knippa, Maroof Miyana, Pranav V. Patel, Louis F. Petrossi, and Richard St. Julien.  Today's judgment against Brown concludes the SEC's litigation in this matter.

The SEC's litigation was handled by Bari R. Nadworny and Lindsay S. Moilanen of the New York Regional Office and was supervised by Sheldon L. Pollock and Daniel Loss.