Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have filed two civil forfeiture complaints to forfeit more than $19.5 million in assets seized in alleged stock pump-and-dump schemes.
Filed in Manhattan federal court on June 30, the complaints seek forfeiture of assets linked to two Hong Kong-based companies—CTRL Group Limited and Dreamland Limited—both of which are listed on Nasdaq.
The schemes were “driven by Asia‑based small‑cap foreign issuers seeking to manipulate share prices and exploit American investors” and “pose serious risks to those who place their trust in our financial system,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton said in a statement on June 30.
“Investors should exercise caution when dealing with thinly traded foreign issuers, as these companies can be especially vulnerable to manipulation and can expose investors to significant, often hidden, risks,” Clayton said.
Terence G. Reilly, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Nashville field office, said that these schemes “erode the integrity of capital markets and cause financial hardship for countless investors,” according to a statement on June 30.
“The recovery of $19.5 million is an important first step toward providing relief for victims and should serve as a reminder that the FBI will vigorously investigate and pursue those who seek to manipulate financial systems for personal gain.”
CTRL Group
According to Nasdaq, CTRL Group, a British Virgin Islands-incorporated company that provides marketing and advertising services in Hong Kong, began trading on the exchange under the ticker symbol MCTR on Jan. 22, 2025. The company has since been renamed to TJGC Group, with its ticker symbol changed to TJGC.
Prosecutors said in the complaint against CTRL Group that the alleged scheme “took place before” the company’s name and ticker changes. Accordingly, the complaint refers to the company as CTRL Group and uses its former ticker symbol, MCTR.
In late May and early June last year, accounts on X, Reddit, and other social media platforms began to post “hundreds of identical comments touting MCTR as a stock that was going to increase in value,” according to the complaint. These accounts made claims such as “$MCTR Here We Go” or “$MCTR New alerts have been posted in the last hours,” and shared a link to a Discord group that “purported to offer investment advice.”
Some accounts posted comments about “similar groups on WhatsApp.” For instance, in an X post screenshot, an account named “Jonathan” wrote that he “recommended $MCTR in a WhatsApp discussion this morning and it has already gone up 353%” and encouraged people to join his WhatsApp for “stock analysis and trading guidance.”
Beginning on June 3, 2025, MCTR began a “sudden surge in stock price and trading volume,” according to the complaint. It opened at $7.12 per share, hit an intra-day high of $33.69 per share, but eventually dropped to $2.82 per share by the end of June 2025.
“CTRL Group did not publish any news that would account for the sudden and drastic change in stock price,” the complaint states.
During this period, 10 U.S. brokerage accounts, opened by different individuals in either China or Hong Kong, sold a combined total of more than 1 million MCTR shares for nearly $12 million, for net profits of about $6.3 million, according to the complaint.
The complaint said eight of the accounts had logged into their brokerage accounts using the same IP address, Media Access Control (MAC) address, or both as at least one other account, a pattern prosecutors described as evidence of “collusion.”
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued search warrants, resulting in the seizure of about $10.3 million in cash from the 10 brokerage accounts last month.
Dreamland
Dreamland, an event management service provider, was incorporated in the Cayman Islands on July 5, 2024, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol TDIC on July 23, 2025.
According to the complaint against Dreamland, on May 13 and May 14 of this year, the company’s share price surged “more than ten-fold,” allegedly driven in part by social media campaigns touting TDIC as a “short squeeze” play.
Before the surge, from Jan. 2 to May 12, TDIC stock traded between $0.57 and $2.36, with an average daily trading volume of about 2.6 million shares, according to the complaint. On May 13, the stock price jumped to $30 per share before closing at $23.05, with a volume of about 109 million shares. On June 12, the stock price closed at $0.23.
On May 14, a U.S. brokerage firm notified the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority of unauthorized trading tied to compromised login credentials, according to the complaint. The credentials, which belonged to a third-party financial advisor, were used in an attempt to access eight client accounts.
Three of the accounts were successfully accessed, and the intruders allegedly attempted to purchase more than 1.3 million shares of TDIC for approximately $22.9 million before the brokerage supposedly canceled the transactions.
“The use of compromised brokerage accounts to place massive buy orders is consistent with a coordinated pump-and-dump scheme,” the complaint states.
During this period, a brokerage account held in the name of a Hong Kong-based investment fund, Imperial Vision Fund SPC, sold nearly 1.5 million shares of TDIC for about $17.7 million, prosecutors stated. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Imperial Vision was incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
U.S. authorities, acting on a search warrant issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, seized about $8.4 million in cash and roughly $850,000 worth of securities from Imperial Vision’s brokerage account in June.
The Epoch Times was unable to determine whether CTRL Group and Dreamland had legal representation.
