Tricksy Trader Duped Brokers, Stole $373K With Phantom Orders!

SEC v. Artur Khachatryan — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Litigation Release No. 26445, dated December 16, 2025.

The SEC charged Artur Khachatryan with a manipulative stock trading scheme called spoofing. He allegedly placed fake orders to artificially move stock prices, then traded at those manipulated prices for profit. Khachatryan generated over $373,000 in illicit gains and has settled with the SEC.

In Plain English

Imagine you want to sell a popular toy. You pretend to list a huge number of toys for sale at a slightly higher price, making buyers think the toy is suddenly in high demand. Then, you quickly buy up all the toys at that higher price before canceling your fake listings. This person did something similar with stocks, tricking the market to make money.

Disclaimer: all facts are drawn from the SEC's own filings; the claims described are allegations unless and until a court rules or the parties settle, and some cases end in dismissal.

How the Alleged Scheme Worked

1. Placing Fake Orders Between January 2022 and January 2024, Artur Khachatryan allegedly placed orders for stocks that he never intended to execute. These were known as 'spoof orders'.
2. Targeting Thin Markets Khachatryan specifically placed these spoof orders outside of regular market hours when stocks were thinly traded, making prices easier to manipulate.
3. Artificially Moving Prices He would rapidly place a series of spoof orders on one side of the market, which artificially pushed the stock price in a direction he wanted.
4. Executing Real Trades Once the price moved, Khachatryan would then place and execute actual buy or sell orders on the opposite side of the market, taking advantage of the manipulated price.
5. Canceling Fake Orders Immediately after his real trades were executed at the favorable, manipulated price, he would quickly cancel the initial spoof orders.
6. Repeating the Scheme Khachatryan allegedly repeated this pattern, sometimes on the other side of the market, to lock in profits from trading at artificially set prices.
7. Circumventing Restrictions After multiple broker-dealers restricted or closed his accounts due to his trading activity, Khachatryan opened new brokerage accounts in the names of other individuals to continue his scheme.
8. Misrepresenting Account Ownership In some cases, he filled out and signed account opening documents for others, falsely representing that those individuals would be trading when he knew he would be the sole trader.

The Enforcement Action

On December 16, 2025, the SEC filed settled charges against Artur Khachatryan for allegedly conducting a manipulative stock trading scheme known as spoofing over a two-year period, generating approximately $373,885 in ill-gotten gains. Khachatryan, without admitting or denying the allegations, consented to a final judgment imposing permanent injunctive relief, ordering him to pay disgorgement of $373,885 plus prejudgment interest of $22,629.34, and a civil penalty of $112,165. The judgment also prohibits him from trading in brokerage accounts for four years under certain conditions.

Named in this action: Artur Khachatryan.

Original SEC litigation release ↗ · Browse all cases