SEC v. Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore (undisclosed control blocks, 2015)

Settled

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The SEC's September 2015 YaFarm Technologies pump-and-dump case against Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore ended on 11 December 2018 in the District of Massachusetts, when the SEC told the court it would not seek disgorgement or a penalty. Both men had consented to judgments in September 2015 with the money left open. Morelli was sentenced to 84 months in a related criminal case and Buonocore died in 2018.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 September 21, 2015 as release LR-23355. The respondents named are Frank Morelli III and Louis Buonocore (2 individuals, 0 entities).

The complaint alleges that two men concealed ownership of virtually all of YaFarm Technologies, paid promoters to tout it, caused a false press release and sold into the price rise. No Section 17(b) or concealed-payment allegation is made, so the paid-promotion tag has been replaced.

This library tags the matter as undisclosed control blocks, pump and dump and fake press releases, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The conduct is recorded against equities.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.

On 22 September 2015 the court entered judgments against Morelli and Buonocore that permanently enjoined them, barred them from serving as officers or directors and from penny stock offerings, and left disgorgement and penalties to be set on the SEC's motion. On 11 December 2018 the SEC told the court it would not seek either remedy: Morelli had been sentenced on 26 July 2018 to 84 months in prison in a separate criminal case, and Buonocore, who had pleaded guilty, had died, so his criminal case was dismissed on 16 October 2018. The SEC's release of March 2019 describes the case as concluded. The record therefore ends with no money awarded in this case. The 84-month sentence was imposed in a case about a different stock, not YaFarm.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary documents linked above. This page summarises the structured record and does not reproduce them.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 3 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.

• Undisclosed control blocks — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Fake press releases — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2015-09-21 Litigation release published
2. 2018-12-11 SEC tells the court it will not seek disgorgement or penalty; case concluded (D. Mass.)

Primary documents

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

• SEC litigation release
• SEC notice of intent to forgo disgorgement and civil penalty (11 Dec 2018)
• SEC litigation release 24429 (case concluded)

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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.