Litigation Releases (Drew Morgan Ciccarelli)

Drew Morgan Ciccarelli

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 26087 / August 30, 2024

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Drew Morgan Ciccarelli

, No. 1:20-cv-11789 (D. Mass. filed Sept. 30, 2020)

SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Defendant in a Microcap Fraud Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a final judgment against defendant Drew Ciccarelli on August 21, 2024, in a previously filed action charging him for his role in a pump-and-dump scheme in the stock of Rarus Technologies Inc, a former New York-based microcap company.

The Commission'scomplaint, filed in September 2020, alleged that Ciccarelli was paid $150,000 by a shareholder group that secretly controlled Rarus to promote and increase demand for Rarus stock in order for the shareholder group to sell its shares at inflated prices. According to the complaint, Ciccarelli used intermediary entities he controlled to pass funds from the shareholder group to the promoters thereby concealing the shareholder group's sponsorship of the promotional campaign.

Ciccarelli, without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC's complaint, consented to the entry of a final judgment enjoining him from violating the securities registration and antifraud provisions of Sections 5(a), 5(c), 17(a)(1), and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and 10b-5(c) thereunder. In addition, Ciccarelli consented to a penny stock bar. The final judgment also orders Ciccarelli to pay disgorgement of $35,000 plus prejudgment interest of $13,364.41 that was deemed satisfied by an Order of Forfeiture entered in a parallel criminal action filed by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. In the parallel criminal proceeding arising from the same conduct, Ciccarelli pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering and was ordered on June 25, 2024, to incarceration for a term of one year and a day and two years' probation and forfeiture of $500,000.

The SEC's litigation was led by Marty Healey and J. Lauchlan Wash of the SEC's Boston Regional Office.