SEC Charges Meta Materials and Former CEOs With Market Manipulation, Fraud and Other Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Meta Materials Inc. and its former CEOs, John Brda and George Palikaras. The company has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges in an administrative proceeding, while the SEC’s litigation against Brda and Palikaras will proceed in federal district court. The SEC’s complaint against Brda and Palikaras alleges that, as a result of a concerted market manipulation scheme, Meta Materials, a Nevada corporation headquartered in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, raised $137.5 million from investors in an at-the-market (ATM) offering in June 2021 immediately prior to the merger of Brda’s Torchlight Energy Resources Inc. and Palikaras’ Metamaterial Inc. that formed Meta Materials. The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S.