SEC v. Artur Khachatryan

Artur Khachatryan allegedly conducted a manipulative stock trading scheme known as spoofing over a two-year period and generating approximately $373,885 in ill-gotten gains. According to the SEC’s complaint, Khachatryan’s scheme involved placing orders for stock that he did not intend to execute, placing a series of spoof orders on one side of the market for a particular stock, which artificially moved the stock price in a direction of his choosing. He then would place and execute orders on the opposite side of the market to take advantage of the price movement he had created, before quickly canceling his spoof orders. Khachatryan then allegedly repeated the same spoofing scheme on the other side of the market to move the stock price in the opposite direction and lock in his profits from trading at manipulated prices. The complaint also alleges that after multiple broker-dealers restricted trading in or closed Khachatryan’s accounts, he opened brokerage accounts in the names of other individuals to continue his manipulative trading.

Summary generated from official Securities and Exchange Commission press release