SEC/FDA/FTC Regulatory Watch: 24-hour trading, food-color rules, and consumer remedies (July 20–26, 2026)

The July 20–26 docket combined a market-structure discussion at the SEC, six SEC litigation releases, FDA actions on food colors, digital-health evidence, drug approval, antimicrobial-resistance surveillance, an active foodborne-illness investigation, and 10 warning-letter postings, plus FTC consumer-protection orders involving crypto marketing, student-loan relief, and health-product sales. The practical theme is control evidence: trading infrastructure, investor-money use, real-world device data, product claims, and refund execution. 1 2 3

The agency materials do not establish a causal share-price reaction for the named companies. Several SEC matters concern private companies or court proceedings, so the market-facing conclusions below are limited to disclosed regulatory exposure and the next action a compliance team can take.

The SEC will hold a public roundtable on September 17 to discuss the U.S. equity market’s possible move toward 24-hour trading. The announced agenda covers overnight-trading preparation, operations and resilience in a continuous market, and the opportunities and challenges of expansion. The event will be held at SEC headquarters and streamed on SEC.gov. Public comments should identify File No. 4-913. 4

This is a preparation forum, not a rule establishing 24-hour trading. Firms that could support an overnight session can use the lead time to inventory order handling, market-data coverage, surveillance, staffing, incident escalation, customer disclosures, and vendor service levels. The SEC has not yet posted the roundtable agenda or speaker list.

The SEC’s enforcement releases this week also put documentation under pressure. On July 20, the agency charged Zan Shaikh and his company Mining Automatic, alleging that they raised about $22 million from more than 380 investors for crypto-asset mining, promised guaranteed monthly returns, and used only about 13% of investor funds for purported mining expenses. The complaint alleges that most funds went to marketing and Shaikh’s personal or unrelated business expenses. Shaikh and the company consented to judgments that would impose injunctions and a conduct-based restriction, while disgorgement, interest, and civil penalties remain for the court to determine. 5

On July 24, the SEC reported proposed judgments against Brian Kuzdas and John Rowland, founders of S2A Modular Corp. The complaint alleges that the pair raised about $65 million from nearly 350 retail investors, diverted money from investors’ selected factories, and claimed to have more than 600 units under contract when the SEC alleges there were about 100 customer contracts by the end of 2024. The proposed relief, which is subject to court approval, includes a $200,000 penalty and a two-year officer-and-director bar for each defendant. 6

The week also closed two older SEC matters with final judgments. In the Aras case, the Western District of Texas entered judgment on July 13 against Mexico-based Aras Investment Business Group, CEO Armando Gutierrez Rosas, and four individuals. The SEC’s earlier complaint alleged that the defendants promised monthly returns as high as 10% while using investor money for personal expenses, including a $2.5 million Texas mansion. The judgment ordered joint-and-several disgorgement with prejudgment interest of $448,746 against Aras and $129,614 against Gutierrez, plus separate amounts against the other defendants; Gutierrez also owes a $448,746 civil penalty. 7

A second final-judgment release concerned Gauntlet Holdings and related defendants. The SEC alleged that defendants sold promissory notes falsely described as backed by $7.98 billion held at a Doha bank by Qatar’s royal family, then defrauded a separate investor of $1 million. Final judgments ordered Gauntlet and Darrell Rideaux to pay $842,500 in disgorgement, $165,809 in prejudgment interest, and an $842,500 penalty on a joint-and-several basis; Ali Derakhshanfar was ordered to pay $500,000 in disgorgement, $143,837 in interest, and a $500,000 penalty. 15

For issuers and private-fund sponsors, the immediate control review is concrete: tie offering statements to dated source records, preserve evidence of how investor money was used, and document the basis for customer-demand and pipeline claims. Proposed relief should remain labeled as proposed until the relevant court enters it.

The FDA revoked Orange B’s authorized use as a food color and proposed revoking Citrus Red No. 2’s authorization for coloring mature-orange skins. The agency said it had concluded the Citrus Red No. 2 use was abandoned by industry; the Orange B action followed public comments that did not change the agency’s conclusion that the use had been abandoned. Comments on Citrus Red No. 2 are due August 24 in Docket FDA-2026-N-6304. Food manufacturers, importers, and private-label owners should confirm where either color appears in specifications, labels, supplier certifications, and change-control files. 8

For digital-health developers, the FDA’s first TEMPO participant is Dexcom. The Dexcom Glucose Health Program will be evaluated in two clinical-use areas connected to the CMS ACCESS Model. Participants must collect, monitor, and report real-world data tied to intended uses and patient outcomes. FDA plans to select up to about 10 participants in each of four clinical-use areas, and it continues to accept statements of interest without a specified closing date. 9

FDA’s 2026 novel-drug table records approval of Lytenava, whose active ingredient is bevacizumab-vikg, on July 24 for patients with neovascular, or wet, age-related macular degeneration. The table is an approval record, not a substitute for the full prescribing information. Teams preparing launch materials should keep the indication, safety language, and any comparative claims inside the approved labeling. 10

The FDA, CDC, and state partners updated a Cyclospora investigation on July 24. The update covered nine states and reported 1,947 people with illness after Taco Bell exposure, at least 98 hospitalizations, and no deaths. FDA said the investigation was linked to iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico and recalled by Taylor Farms de Mexico; illnesses began between June 22 and July 20. The investigation remains open, and the agency said consumers, restaurants, and retailers should discard recalled product and sanitize surfaces and containers that touched it. 11

The FDA warning-letter index showed 10 postings on July 21–22. The letter issue dates are not all inside the weekly window, so the posting date and letter date should not be treated as the same event date. One current example is Island Kinetics, doing business as CoValence Laboratories: the July 16 letter, posted July 21, cites cGMP failures, unapproved new drugs, misbranding, weak process and cleaning validation, inadequate investigations, and an expected written response within 15 business days of receipt. 3 16

A separate FDA update released July 22 set the NARMS strategic plan for 2026–2030. FDA, CDC, and USDA framed the plan around stronger core surveillance, wider collaborative networks, and innovation in antimicrobial-resistance monitoring. Animal-health, food, and pharmaceutical teams should watch how future data-sharing and surveillance priorities affect study design, supplier oversight, and resistance-risk documentation. 17

The FTC announced a $16.5 million resolution with Celsius founders Alexander Mashinsky, Shlomi Daniel Leon, and Hanoch "Nuke" Goldstein. The agency alleged that Celsius promised users their deposits were safe and always available, maintained sufficient reserves, held a $750 million insurance policy, and could pay rewards of up to 18% annually. The orders require payments of $10 million from Mashinsky, $4.1 million from Leon, and $2.4 million from Goldstein. They also restrict specified crypto-related marketing and prohibit material misrepresentations; stipulated orders take effect when approved and signed by the district court. 12

On July 21, the FTC proposed permanently banning Dennise Merdjanian from the debt-relief industry and telemarketing. The agency alleged that Merdjanian and other operators posed as affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education and falsely promised student-loan forgiveness, taking more than $45.9 million from consumers. The proposed order carries a monetary judgment above $45.9 million that is partially suspended because of inability to pay; the full amount could become due if the agency finds a material misrepresentation about finances. The order remains subject to court approval. 13

The FTC also began sending more than $672,000 to consumers harmed by Trend Deploy’s deceptive marketing. The agency said it is mailing 9,419 checks and instructed recipients to cash them within 90 days. The refund action follows an order requiring operator Frank Romero to pay the FTC for Mail Order Rule violations. Companies selling health-related products online should preserve the evidence behind delivery claims, product-performance claims, and refund handling rather than treating a disclaimer as a substitute for substantiation. 14

The Island Kinetics warning letter calls for a written response within 15 business days after receipt. Confirm the receipt date, assess distributed lots and unapproved products, and submit a complete corrective-action response. 16

The SEC Mining Automatic and S2A Modular matters, along with the FTC Celsius and Merdjanian matters, still require court approval for the proposed orders or judgments described above. Track docket entries and keep monetary relief and restrictions labeled as proposed until the relevant court acts. 5 6 12

The next monitoring pass should start with the SEC’s 4-913 docket, FDA’s August 24 color-additive deadline, and any court entries that convert this week’s proposed relief into final orders. For FDA-regulated businesses, the warning-letter index also warrants a date check: a posting date can fall inside the weekly window even when the underlying letter was issued earlier.