SEC v. Sterling Craig Barton (unregistered distributions, 2017)

Settled

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In July 2017 the SEC settled proceedings against Sterling Craig Barton for his part in a scheme to sell unrestricted-looking shares of the shell company Mainstream Entertainment. He agreed to pay $16,014 disgorgement, $1,885 interest and a $100,000 penalty and accepted a penny stock bar. The order contains no insider trading charge.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$100k

Disgorgement

$16k

Prejudgment interest

$1.9k

Total relief

$118k

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 Commission found that Barton helped the company's control person by devising a sham contract that gave the shell the appearance of revenue, advised on its SEC filings, and received shares that he deposited with a broker on false representations that they were unrestricted, supported by a legal opinion he knew was false. He then sold them in the open market.

On his consent, the order finds violations of Section 5 and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act and Section 10(b), among other provisions, and imposes disgorgement of $16,014.23, interest of $1,885.03, a $100,000 penalty and a penny stock offering bar.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2017-07-31 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

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 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.