Articles Posted in SEC Action

Wells Fargo will pay $480 million to resolve fraud and insider trading allegations brought in a class action in California. According to the plaintiffs, top executives at the bank engaged in insider trading after employees were directed to create millions of accounts under customer names, without the customers’ consent. While litigation in California state court…

Jehu Hand, a California-based attorney has been found guilty of securities fraud and is now awaiting sentencing. Following his trial, which took place in Boston, the defendant could be facing up to eight years in prison. The federal jury found that Hand conspired with his two brothers to run a pump-and-dump scheme by falsifying documents.…

In a complex and shifting global scenario, the financial industry faces numerous challenges relating to anti-money laundering (AML) compliance. In a rapidly changing regulatory environment, within an unstable geopolitical context, financial institutions have to adapt to new technologies and innovative operating models. As regulators worldwide coordinate to increase transparency and target wrongdoers, AML has taken…

Last week, federal prosecutors charged Delaney Equity Group with participating in a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of bogus shell company shares. The Florida-based broker-dealer allegedly conspired to sell shares of fraudulent microcap companies to investors at a profit. The Department of Justice has accused the defendant of “unlawfully” selling “unregistered securities” between late 2009…

The over 80 subpoenas recently issued to companies in the cryptocurrency sector have provided a logical corollary to the agency’s many warnings about ICOs potential violations of security laws. The time for warnings is over. Now, the SEC’s intentions have evolved into enforcement actions, forever changing the scenario for new cryptocurrency initiatives. In late 2017,…

Hip-hop star Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has just received a subpoena to appear in court after he failed to testify in connection with the SEC’s probe into Iconix Brand Group’s accounting practices. Iconix acquired intangible assets from Jay-Z’s clothing brand Rocawear in 2007, which boasted $700 million in annual sales at the time. The agreement…

Celebrity endorsements add an element of trust for investors who are just entering the ICO market. But the strategy did not turn out well for Centra Tech, as a third arrest has just been made in connection with the SEC’s allegations that the company defrauded investors out of over $25 million. Earlier this year, I…

A new proposed SEC regulation vows to “enhance the quality and transparency of investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers.” If “Regulation Best Interest” is finally implemented, broker-dealers will be required to “act in the best interest” of their retail customers whenever they recommend any securities transactions or investments. Following numerous penalties in cases where…

The SEC is effectively expanding its jurisdiction into the cryptocurrency and ICO market. Dozens of companies, possibly hundreds, are receiving SEC subpoenas, which I advise them to take very seriously. High profile companies, including giants like TechCrunch’s cryptofund, are currently dealing with these subpoenas. One of the problems is that nobody knows exactly what is…

The SEC has repeatedly warned cryptocurrency investors about the market’s vulnerability to large-scale fraud. Likewise, the agency has made it clear that cryptocurrency offerings that function as securities will be treated as such, and thus subjected to scrutiny. Since SEC officials began making emphatic statements about its jurisdiction over the cryptocurrency space, many companies have…