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The SEC has brought charges against promoters for not disclosing the compensation they were receiving for promoting a stock. In SEC v. Smith, the SEC alleged that the defendants fraudulently promoted a data storage company through emails, online blogs, articles, and other media, without fully disclosing their compensation or that they would be paid more if they increased the company’s share price. According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants made false and misleading statements to try to increase the trading volume and share price of the company’s stock, including falsely naming well-known companies as customers and making highly misleading projections about investment returns.

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