SEC v. Richard Weed, Coleman Flaherty III and Thomas Brazil (pump and dump, 2016)

Judgment entered

✓ 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-richard-weed-et-al-pump-and-dump-2016) by email

The SEC sued attorney Richard Weed and promoters Coleman Flaherty and Thomas Brazil in 2014 over the CitySide Tickets stock scheme. Flaherty and Brazil consented to judgments in October 2016, and after summary judgment against Weed the court entered a final judgment on June 22, 2018 with a $150,000 penalty, ending the case.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$150k

Disgorgement

$2.9m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$3m

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 August 23, 2016 as release LR-23624. The respondents named are Richard Weed, Coleman Flaherty III and Thomas Brazil (3 individuals, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as pump and dump and reverse merger schemes, 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.

Non-monetary relief recorded: penny stock bar.

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.

SEC releases show the case ended in two steps. On October 4, 2016 the District of Massachusetts entered consent judgments against Flaherty and Brazil with penny-stock bars and disgorgement of $1,350,734 and $1,519,213, deemed satisfied by criminal forfeiture orders (release 23671). On June 22, 2018 it entered a final judgment against Weed after granting summary judgment on the SEC's fraud claims, ordering a $150,000 penalty and barring him from serving as an officer or director of a public company and from penny-stock offerings; the SEC dismissed its remaining registration claim, concluding the case (release 24175). Weed was convicted in a parallel criminal case in May 2016 and sentenced to four years in prison, and his conviction was upheld on appeal. The disgorgement field adds the two amounts that were deemed satisfied by forfeiture. Checked on 2026-10-04.

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.

• Pump and dump — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Reverse merger schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2016-08-23 Litigation release published
2. 2016-10-04 Consent judgments against Flaherty and Brazil (SEC LR-23671)
3. 2018-06-22 Final judgment against Weed; case concluded (SEC LR-24175)

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 litigation release 23671 (Flaherty and Brazil)
• SEC litigation release 24175 (Weed)

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 3 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.