SEC Charges Fremont Day Trader Mingran Wang With Spoofing Over 150 ADRs for More Than $1.3 Million in Ill-Gotten Gains
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on June 25, 2026, that on June 24 it filed settled charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Mingran Wang, a day trader from Fremont in Alameda County, California, for allegedly orchestrating a years-long market manipulation scheme through which he obtained more than $1.3 million in ill-gotten gains.
According to the SEC's complaint, from October 2021 to at least November 2024, Wang manipulated the price of over 150 thinly traded American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) through a fraudulent trading scheme known as spoofing. As alleged, the scheme followed three steps: Wang placed buy and sell orders for ADRs that he never intended to execute, which moved the market price of the targeted securities; he then executed orders to buy or sell the ADR to take advantage of the manipulated price; and he then canceled the non-bona fide orders, typically before they could be executed. Wang allegedly placed the non-bona fide orders through accounts he controlled at one brokerage firm and executed his actual trades through accounts at a different firm. The complaint says Wang took efforts to conceal his actions and admitted to federal investigators that he tried to walk the price up to his advantage with the non-bona fide orders.
The SEC's complaint charges Wang with violating the anti-fraud provisions of Section 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, as well as the anti-manipulation provisions of Section 9(a)(2) of the Exchange Act. Wang consented to the entry of a judgment, subject to court approval, that permanently enjoins him from violating the charged provisions, enjoins him for five years from opening, maintaining or trading in any brokerage accounts without providing the broker-dealer a copy of the complaint and judgments in the SEC's action, and provides that the court will determine any disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties at a later date.
In a parallel action, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against Wang, the SEC said. The investigation was conducted by the Commission's enforcement staff with the assistance of the Market Abuse Unit, and the SEC thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's Market Abuse Unit for their assistance.
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国加州旧金山的 Phillip Burton 联邦大楼暨美国法院外墙名牌（资料照片），本案诉状提交至加州北区联邦地区法院。Sam Wheeler 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The name sign of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco, California (file photo); the complaint in this case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Photo by Sam Wheeler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
