SEC v. Joseph P. Doxey and William J. Daniels (fake press releases, 2014)

Judgment entered

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In 2014, an SEC administrative law judge granted summary disposition against Joseph P. Doxey, finding he willfully violated antifraud and registration provisions in 2008 and 2009 by authorizing misleading press releases for Pure H20 Bio-Technologies and related stock sales, and against William J. Daniels for Section 5 violations. Doxey was ordered to disgorge $57,654 and Daniels $16,246.46.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

$57.7k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$57.7k

Alleged gain

$57k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on May 15, 2014 as initial decision 598. The respondents are Joseph P. Doxey, founder and chief executive of Pure H20 Bio-Technologies, Inc., and William J. Daniels. The judge found that Mr Doxey authorized six press releases in 2008 and 2009 that misstated the status of the company's water disinfection system, and that Mr Doxey and Mr Daniels were involved in unregistered sales. The order directs cease-and-desist relief, a permanent officer-and-director bar and penny stock bar for Mr Doxey, a five-year penny stock bar for Mr Daniels, and disgorgement of $57,654 (Doxey) and $16,246.46 (Daniels) plus interest; the judge declined a civil penalty. The record previously showed the matter as dismissed and named the respondents as "Daniels", "William J. Doxey" and "Joseph P."; both are corrected. As an initial decision it was not final until the Commission so ordered.

This library tags the matter as fake press releases, unregistered distributions, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Fake press releases — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Unregistered distributions — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2014-05-15 Initial decision

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• Initial decision (ID-598)
• Order instituting proceedings
• Finality order

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.