SEC v. Visionary Trading LLC, Lightspeed Trading LLC and five individuals (layering, 2014)

Settled

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In 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an action with Visionary Trading LLC, Lightspeed Trading LLC, Andrew Actman, Joseph Dondero, Eugene Giaquinto, Lee Heiss and Jason Medvin. The order finds Dondero, an owner of Visionary Trading, ran a layering strategy that earned him about $984,000, and that Visionary, Lightspeed Trading and three traders broke broker-registration rules by sharing commissions with unregistered people; Actman is found to have failed to supervise one of them. Penalties total $1 million (Dondero $785,000, Lightspeed $100,000, Giaquinto, Heiss and Medvin $35,000 each, Actman $10,000) and disgorgement about $1.79 million. The release records a civil penalty of $1 million, disgorgement of $1,788,806, prejudgment interest of $43,317.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1m

Disgorgement

$1.8m

Prejudgment interest

$43.3k

Total relief

$2.8m

Alleged gain

$984k

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 April 4, 2014 as release 3-15823. The respondents named are Visionary Trading LLC, Lightspeed Trading LLC, Andrew Actman, Joseph Dondero, Eugene Giaquinto, Lee Heiss and Jason Medvin (5 individuals, 2 entities).

This library tags the matter as layering and spoofing, 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 order finds Dondero, an owner of Visionary Trading, ran a layering strategy that earned him about $984,000, and that Visionary, Lightspeed Trading and three traders broke broker-registration rules by sharing commissions with unregistered people; Actman is found to have failed to supervise one of them. Penalties total $1 million (Dondero $785,000, Lightspeed $100,000, Giaquinto, Heiss and Medvin $35,000 each, Actman $10,000) and disgorgement about $1.79 million.

The conduct is recorded against bonds and equities, with OTC identified in the release.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $1 million, disgorgement of $1,788,806, prejudgment interest of $43,317. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted. Our figures are the sums across all seven respondents, excluding interest; only Dondero's share ($785,000 penalty, about $1.1 million disgorgement) rests on the layering finding.

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.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2014-04-04 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.