Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. J. Jeremy Barbera, Carl Smith, and Nanobeak Biotech Inc. (2020)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. SEC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In December 2020 the SEC charged Nanobeak Biotech, former CEO Jeremy Barbera and promoter Carl Smith over misleading statements to investors. Smith consented to a final judgment on 8 January 2024 with a US$100,000 penalty, disgorgement of US$173,875 and US$23,470.59 in interest; no outcome for Barbera or Nanobeak was found.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number LR-24978
Date filed 2020-12-09
Date resolved 2020-12-09
Status filed
Criminal parallel Yes: charged (Barbera), Southern District of New York
Defendants J. Jeremy Barbera, Carl Smith, (individual) ; Nanobeak Biotech Inc. (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 ; Securities Act s.17(a) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty
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Disgorgement
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Prejudgment interest
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Total relief
—
Alleged gain
—

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 December 9, 2020 as release LR-24978. The respondents named are J. Jeremy Barbera, Carl Smith, and Nanobeak Biotech Inc. (1 individual, 1 entity).

The complaint alleges that the company's CEO and a stock promoter obtained about $3.6 million from investors in a private offering through false statements, and that the promoter falsely said he was not paid. That is solicitation fraud in a private offering, not publicity for undisclosed pay, so the paid-promotion tag has been removed.

This library does not tag the matter with a manipulation technique, because the document does not describe one. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

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.

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.

Outcome so far. SEC release LR-25927 says that on 8 January 2024 the Southern District of New York entered a final consent judgment against Carl Smith, enjoining him from violating Section 17(a), Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and ordering a US$100,000 penalty, US$173,875 in disgorgement and US$23,470.59 in prejudgment interest. The release does not report any outcome for Barbera or Nanobeak Biotech.

Because the lead defendant has no outcome in the sources found, the record stays at filed and no money figures are entered for the matter as a whole. Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome for Barbera or Nanobeak found on SEC litigation release pages.

Timeline

  1. 2020-12-09 Litigation release published
  2. 2024-01-08 Final consent judgment against Carl Smith (SEC LR-25927, published 18 January 2024)

Primary documents

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

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.