Litigation Releases (Harsh V. Patel)

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26532 / April 20, 2026

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Harsh V. Patel, No. 1:26-cv-03203 (S.D.N.Y. filed April 20, 2026)

SEC Charges Day Trader in Alleged Market Manipulation Scheme

On April 20, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Harsh V. Patel, for allegedly perpetrating a scheme from San Juan, Puerto Rico to manipulate stock prices that generated more than $5 million in ill-gotten gains.

According to the SEC's complaint, Patel conducted his manipulative trading scheme on more than a thousand occasions, trading in hundreds of different stocks from at least May 2021 to January 2024. The complaint alleges that to carry out his scheme, Patel placed a large number of small lot market orders to purchase a security, which increased the price of the security in a matter of minutes. The complaint further alleges Patel then placed non-bona fide limit orders to buy that same security to falsely indicate to the market that there was additional buying interest in the security and to buoy the security's price. According to the complaint, Patel then sold the same security that he had just acquired in a few large-lot market orders in order to sell the security at the now-inflated price. Finally, as alleged in the complaint, Patel then quickly cancelled the buy limit orders that he had placed. The SEC's complaint also alleges that as broker-dealers discovered Patel's manipulative trading and restricted and closed his accounts, Patel opened new brokerage accounts in the name of another individual to continue his scheme.

The SEC's complaint, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, charges Patel with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 9(a)(2) and 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The SEC seeks against Patel permanent injunctions, a conduct-based injunction, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by Matthew Koop and Julia C. Green, with assistance of Han Nguyen, all of the Division of Enforcement's Market Abuse Unit, under the supervision of Joseph G. Sansone, Chief of the Market Abuse Unit. The litigation will be handled by Karen M. Klotz and supervised by Gregory R. Bockin and Scott A. Thompson, Associate Director of the SEC's Philadelphia Regional Office. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.