Litigation Releases (John “Jon” Isaac and Virland A. Johnson)

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26613 / August 21, 2026

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Live Ventures Inc., et al., No. 2:21-civ-01433-JCM-MDC (D. Nev. filed Aug. 2, 2021)

SEC Files Proposed Final Judgments as to Company CEO and Former CFO in Alleged Financial and Disclosure Fraud Scheme

On August 20, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed consents and proposed final judgments as to John "Jon" Isaac, the CEO of Live Ventures Inc., and Virland A. Johnson, the former CFO of Live Ventures.

The SEC's amended complaint, filed on September 21, 2022 in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, alleged, among other things, that Isaac engineered a transaction that created $915,500 of fraudulent "other income" and increased Live Ventures' pre-tax income by 20% in fiscal year 2016. The complaint further alleged that Isaac used Live Ventures' inflated earnings and a fraudulently reduced share count to calculate an earnings per share that was 40% higher than the earnings per share in Live Ventures' audited financial statements and Isaac put the inflated earnings per share in a 2016 press release that Live Ventures issued. As to Johnson, the complaint alleged that he made false statements to Live Ventures' outside accountants in connection with a February 2018 management representation letter.

Without admitting the allegations in the SEC's complaint, Isaac consented to the entry of a final judgment, which is subject to court approval, that would permanently enjoin him from violating Sections 17(a)(2) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and order him to pay a civil penalty of $175,000. Without admitting the allegations in the SEC's complaint, Johnson consented to the entry of a final judgment, which is subject to court approval, that would permanently enjoin him from violating Rule 13b2-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and order him to pay a civil penalty of $118,225.

The SEC's litigation was led by Daniel Blau, Ruth Pinkel, Donald Searles, and Robert Stillwell of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office. The litigation was supervised by Stephen Kam.