Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are moving to claw back roughly $19.5 million they say was raked in through a pair of China-based pump-and-dump plays that briefly sent two obscure Nasdaq stocks soaring before they crashed. The new civil forfeiture complaints zero in on cash and securities tied to coordinated promotions and suspicious brokerage trading in CTRL Group Limited (ticker MCTR) and Dreamland Limited (ticker TDIC). Prosecutors say the push is aimed at shutting down networks that target U.S. retail traders and ultimately steering seized money back to victims.
What Prosecutors Say Was Going On
According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York press release, the government is seeking more than $19.5 million in cash and securities that it says were generated through manipulative trading in CTRL Group (MCTR) and Dreamland (TDIC). The filing describes a surge of mass, identical social media posts that helped trigger wild intraday spikes in the thinly traded names. CTRL Group, for instance, traded as high as $33.69 on June 3, 2025, before accounts that authorities link to users in China or Hong Kong began unloading large positions.
Prosecutors say they have already seized roughly $10.3 million from certain brokerage accounts. They also report seizing about $8.4 million, along with approximately $850,000 in securities, from other accounts under judicial seizure warrants.
How The Alleged Pump Worked
The complaints allege that promoters funneled investors into Discord groups and then blasted out identical talking points across multiple social platforms to whip up interest. Behind the scenes, a cluster of brokerage accounts was allegedly accessed from the same IP or MAC addresses, which prosecutors say suggests centralized control and coordinated trading.
The pattern is similar to other recent federal moves against cross-border stock manipulation. In March 2025, authorities in Chicago seized about $214 million in what they described as proceeds of a related pump-and-dump scheme, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois press release. Taken together, prosecutors say, the cases show how small foreign-based issuers, paired with aggressive online hype, can rapidly mint and then erase paper gains for everyday investors.
What The Forfeiture Cases Mean
The SDNY filings are civil forfeiture complaints brought in rem, not criminal indictments. In practice, that means the government is suing the property itself and must secure a judicial forfeiture order before it can permanently keep or distribute the seized assets.
Federal guidance says civil forfeiture is used to cut off suspected criminal proceeds and, when the law allows, return recovered funds to victims after court rulings and remission processes are complete. For a general overview, see the DEA asset forfeiture information. Anyone who claims an ownership interest in the seized property can challenge the forfeiture in court, and prosecutors emphasized that the complaints consist of allegations that have not yet been proven.
According to prosecutors, the investigation involved the FBI’s Nashville Field Office, FINRA and the SEC’s Cross-Border Task Force. The civil cases will play out in Manhattan federal court, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office says it will post updates and additional details on its official channels as the litigation moves forward.
