On, April 15, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) obtained final judgments by consent against Florida-based Xtreme Fighting Championships, Inc. and its CEO, Steve A. Smith, Jr.
In December 2024, the Commission charged Xtreme Fighting and Smith with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to sell Xtreme Fighting stock to the investing public illegally.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleged that the stock sales were illegal because Smith and Xtreme Fighting’s in-house counsel controlled the stock and sold it in transactions that were neither registered with the Commission nor exempt from registration.
As alleged, Smith and the in-house counsel hid their control of the stock to avoid legal limits on sales by insiders by issuing the stock to purportedly unaffiliated entities that, in reality, they controlled.
The complaint also alleged that to further the scheme, in April 2022, Smith and Xtreme Fighting publicly filed an annual report falsely stating that Xtreme Fighting’s financial statements were audited. Smith allegedly made the false filing because Xtreme Fighting’s annual report was delinquent, which restricted sales of the company’s stock in the over-the-counter market. Smith allegedly also issued two social media posts about the false filing.
The scheme allegedly generated over $5 million in illegal proceeds, of which Xtreme Fighting received at least $436,000.
Xtreme Fighting and Smith consented to entry of the final judgments, without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, permanently enjoining them from violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder.
The final judgments ordered Xtreme Fighting and Smith to pay, on a joint-and-several basis, disgorgement of $436,000 and prejudgment interest of $97,509, as well as individual civil penalties of $436,000 and $236,451, respectively.
Smith also consented to officer-and-director and penny stock bars, as well as a conduct-based injunction permanently enjoining him from directly or indirectly participating in the issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any security, but allowing for trading on a national securities exchange in his own personal account.
