The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday filed settled charges against Mingran Wang of Fremont, California, for allegedly orchestrating a years-long market manipulation scheme through which he obtained more than $1.3 million in ill-gotten gains.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from October 2021 to at least November 2024, Wang manipulated the price of over 150 thinly traded American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) through a fraudulent trading scheme known as spoofing.

As alleged, Wang’s spoofing scheme followed three basic steps: (1) Wang placed buy and sell orders for ADRs that he never intended to execute which moved the market price of the targeted ADR securities; (2) Wang then executed orders to buy or sell the ADR to take advantage of the manipulated price; and (3) Wang then canceled the non-bona fide orders he placed in the first step, typically before those orders could be executed.

Wang allegedly placed his non-bona fide orders through accounts he controlled at one brokerage firm and executed his actual buy and sell trades through accounts he controlled at a different brokerage firm.

According to the complaint, Wang took efforts to conceal his fraudulent actions and admitted to federal investigators that he tried “to walk the price up [to] my advantage” with his non-bona fide buy and sell orders.

The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, charges Wang with violating the anti-fraud provisions of Section 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, as well as the anti-manipulation provisions of Section 9(a)(2) of the Exchange Act.

Wang consented to the entry of a judgment, subject to court approval, that: i) permanently enjoins him from violating the charged provisions of the federal securities laws; ii) enjoins him for a period of five years from opening, maintaining, or trading in any brokerage accounts without providing the relevant broker dealer a copy of the complaint and judgments in the SEC’s action; and iii) provides that the court shall determine any disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties at a later date.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Wang.