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Ex-Broker Must Pay $15 Million Over SEC Market Manipulation Suit

  • James David O’Brien used elaborate deception, judge finds
  • O’Brien says he did nothing illegal, cites SEC ‘witch hunt’
US Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, DC.

US Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington, DC.

Photographer: Brendan Hoffman/Bloomberg 

A former broker must pay more than $15 million for using over a dozen accounts to influence the prices of some 2,000 exchange-traded securities as part of an alleged market manipulation scheme the judge called “egregious.”

US District Judge Denise Cote on Thursday ordered James David O’Brien to disgorge more than $5 million and pay civil penalties of more than $10 million for the alleged scheme.