John C. Lowe, Jr., JJL Capital LLC, Great South Bay Capital LLC, Randy Grewal, Kierland Capital LLC, Richard L. Ringel, BMEN Trading LLC, and David Cooper
U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26236 / February 3, 2025
Securities and Exchange Commission v. John C. Lowe, Jr., JJL Capital LLC, Great South Bay Capital, LLC, Randy (aka “Ranjiv”) Grewal, Kierland Capital, LLC, Richard L. Ringel, BMEN Trading, LLC and David Cooper, Case 2:25-cv-00260 (E.D.N.Y. filed Jan. 15, 2025)
SEC Charges Four Individuals for Long-Running Scheme to Unlawfully Trade in Advance of Numerous Follow-On Offerings
On January 15, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed fraud charges against John Lowe, Randy Grewal, Richard Ringel, and David Cooper arising from their longstanding fraudulent scheme to trade in advance of the public announcement of the timing or price, or both, of numerous follow-on offerings of NASDAQ-listed issuers.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from at least January 2018 to at least March 2024, Cooper, a registered representative of a securities broker-dealer firm, engaged in an unlawful quid pro quo arrangement with two securities traders, Lowe and Ringel, who held accounts with the broker-dealer firm. Cooper allegedly provided material, nonpublic information about the timing or price of follow-on offerings to Ringel, while Cooper’s colleague shared similar information with Lowe. Lowe then allegedly provided this information to Grewal. Ringel, Lowe, and Grewal and their associated entities then allegedly used the information to short issuers in advance of numerous follow-on offerings before they were publicly announced, making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits. The complaint alleges that in exchange for the material, non-public information that they received, Lowe and Ringel agreed to buy shares of stock in follow-on offerings that the broker-dealer was selling, which resulted in substantial compensation for Cooper.
The SEC’s complaint charges the four individual defendants, along with entities under their control – JJL Capital LLC, Great South Bay Capital LLC, Kierland Capital LLC, and BMEN Trading LLC – with violations of 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, and seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.
The SEC’s ongoing investigation is being conducted by Stephen Johnson, Peter Pizzani, Eric Taffet, and Alison Conn under the supervision of Tejal D. Shah, all of the New York Regional Office, with the assistance of Alex Lefferts of the SEC’s Office of Investigative and Market Analytics. The SEC’s litigation will be led by Mr. Taffet and Oren Gleich, under the supervision of Preethi Krishnamurthy. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.