In a partially litigated partially settled case, the SEC charged Meta Materials Inc., John Brda, and Georgios Palikaras with engaging in a concerted market manipulation scheme designed to trigger a short squeeze and artificially raise the price of the public company's  stock.

In the litigation action, the SEC charged Brda and Palikaras with violating the antifraud and proxy disclosure provisions of the federal securities laws and charged Brda with aiding and abetting Meta violations of the reporting, internal accounting controls, and books and records provisions. The complaint seeks permanent injunctions, officer-and-director bars, and civil penalties from both defendants. The complaint also seeks disgorgement with pre-judgment interest from Brda. In the settled action, Meta was ordered to cease and desist from violations of the relevant provisions of the federal securities laws and to pay a $1,000,000 penalty.