They were not selling stocks. They were offering trading in contracts for difference for said stocks. Not the stocks themselves. Huge difference. It's like you and I making a bet on the price of some asset. A contract between ourselves. The SEC feels that it has the right to barge in and get in between of that. And this company wasn't even registered in the US. I don't understand why the owners gave themselves up so quickly. They could have moved the website to another, non-US controlled TLD and continued.