SEC v. Steven M. Gallagher, a/k/a "Alexander Delarge" (social media ramps, 2021)

Judgment entered

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In October 2021 the SEC sued Twitter stock promoter Steven Gallagher over alleged undisclosed selling of penny stocks he touted. A jury returned a verdict for the SEC on September 19, 2025, and on July 1, 2026 the court entered a final judgment with injunctions, a penny stock bar, $1,255,889 in disgorgement and a $472,902 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$473k

Disgorgement

$1.3m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.7m

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 October 26, 2021 as release LR-25248. The respondents named are Steven M. Gallagher, a/k/a "Alexander Delarge" (1 individual, 0 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

This library tags the matter as social media ramps, 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.

Outcome. After a jury trial in the Southern District of New York held September 8 to 18, 2025, the jury returned a verdict for the SEC on all claims on September 19, 2025, and the court issued an opinion on remedies on June 18, 2026. The final judgment signed July 1, 2026 enjoins Gallagher from Exchange Act Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 and from Section 9(a)(2), permanently bars him from penny stock offerings, and orders disgorgement of $1,255,889 and a civil penalty of $472,902, $1,728,791 in all, with frozen brokerage accounts to be liquidated toward it. This is a litigated outcome, not a settlement. The SEC's whistleblower notice dates the qualifying judgment July 1, 2026. The SEC copy is a scan that we read by eye, and we did not read the opinion itself or any criminal-case source.

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.

• Social media ramps — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2021-10-26 Litigation release published
2. 2025-09-19 Jury returns verdict for the SEC on all claims (recited in final judgment)
3. 2026-07-01 Final judgment entered after trial

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
• Final judgment as to Steven M. Gallagher (S.D.N.Y., Doc. 293)
• SEC whistleblower notice 2026-062

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 20, 2026. submit a correction.