SEC Charges Future FinTech CEO Shanchun Huang With Fraud and Disclosure Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 11, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Shanchun Huang with manipulative trading in the stock of Future FinTech Group Inc., using an offshore account shortly before he became Future FinTech’s CEO in 2020. The SEC also charged Huang with failing to disclose his beneficial ownership of Future FinTech stock as well as transactions in such stock. According to the SEC’s complaint, in late 2019 or early 2020, Huang was approached...
2024-01-11 4:30 PM EST
SEC Charges Global Software Company SAP for FCPA Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 10, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against global software company SAP SE for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of bribery schemes in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia, and Azerbaijan. The company agreed to monetary sanctions of nearly $100 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to settle the SEC’s charges. The SEC’s order finds that SAP, whose...
2024-01-10 1:56 PM EST
SEC Appoints Stacey Bowers as Small Business Advocate
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 5, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that University of Denver law professor Stacey Bowers has been named the new director of the SEC’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation (OASB). Ms. Bowers, a seasoned practitioner in corporate and securities law, began her legal career as a staff attorney in the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance before entering private practice to counsel public companies...
2024-01-05 12:45 PM EST
SEC Charges Florida Real Estate Developer Rishi Kapoor with Perpetuating $93 Million Fraud Scheme and Obtains Emergency Relief
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 3, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it obtained an asset freeze and other emergency relief concerning an alleged $93 million real estate investment fraud perpetrated by Miami-based developer Rishi Kapoor. The SEC also charged Location Ventures LLC, Urbin LLC, and 20 other related entities in connection with the fraud scheme. According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately January 2018, until at least March...
2024-01-03 4:37 PM EST
SEC Charges UAE-Based Brooge Energy and Former Executives with Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 22, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Brooge Energy Limited, a publicly-traded energy company located in the United Arab Emirates, the company’s former CEO, Nicolaas Lammert Paardenkooper, and its former Chief Strategy Officer and Interim CEO, Lina Saheb. According to the SEC order, before and after going public through a special purpose acquisition transaction, Brooge, whose securities trade on...
2023-12-22 9:12 AM EST
SEC Charges Former CEO of Medical Device Startup Stimwave with $41 Million Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 19, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Laura Tyler Perryman, the former CEO and co-founder of Florida-based medical device startup Stimwave Technologies Inc., with defrauding investors out of approximately $41 million by making false and misleading statements about one of the company’s key medical device products. According to the SEC’s complaint, the medical device comprised several components, one of which was a fake,...
2023-12-19 5:54 PM EST
SEC Issues Staff Report on Accredited Investor Definition
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 15, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today issued a staff report on the accredited investor definition. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act directs the Commission to review the accredited investor definition as it relates to natural persons every four years to determine whether the definition should be modified or adjusted. The Staff previously reviewed the definition in 2015 and in 2019 (as part of the...
2023-12-15 11:14 AM EST
Credit Suisse Entities to Pay $10 Million for Providing Prohibited Mutual Fund Services
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 13, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and two affiliated Credit Suisse entities (collectively, the Credit Suisse Entities) agreed to pay more than $10 million to settle the SEC’s charges that they provided prohibited underwriting and advising services to mutual funds. In October 2022, the Superior Court of New Jersey entered a consent order that resolved a case alleging that...
2023-12-13 4:17 PM EST
SEC Approves 2024 PCAOB Budget and Accounting Support Fee
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 13, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today approved the 2024 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and the related annual accounting support fee. The 2024 PCAOB budget totals $384.7 million, and the accounting support fee totals $358.8 million, of which $331.0 million will be assessed on public company issuers and $27.8 million will be assessed on registered broker-dealers. “A critical feature of our capital...
2023-12-13 1:33 PM EST
SEC Charges Five Unregistered Brokers, Four Companies in Widespread Pre-IPO Fraud Scheme
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 7, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Raymond J. Pirrello, Jr., Marcello Follano, Robert Cassino, Anthony DiTucci, Joseph Rivera, and their New Jersey or New York-based companies Prior 2 IPO Inc., Late Stage Asset Management, LLC, Pre IPO Marketing Inc., and JL Rivera Enterprises Ltd. for making fraudulent offerings relating to investments in pre-initial public offering (IPO) companies. According to the...
2023-12-07 10:31 AM EST
SEC Office of the Investor Advocate Publishes Its Policy Recommendations on Mandatory Arbitration and Registered Index-Linked Annuities Research
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - December 5, 2023) - The Office of the Investor Advocate of the Securities and Exchange Commission today published its Report on Activities for the Fiscal Year 2023 to Congress. The report highlights the work of the Office during the fiscal year. Notable highlights from the report include: Empirical research findings about investors’ comprehension of registered index-linked annuities as well as policy recommendations; Research findings about investment...
2023-12-05 10:35 AM EST
SEC Charges Kraken for Operating as an Unregistered Securities Exchange, Broker, Dealer, and Clearing Agency
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 20, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures Inc., together known as Kraken, with operating Kraken’s crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least September 2018, Kraken has made hundreds of millions of dollars unlawfully facilitating the buying and selling of crypto asset securities. The SEC...
2023-11-20 5:52 PM EST
SEC Adopts Rules to Improve Clearing Agency Governance and Mitigate Conflicts of Interest
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted new rules to improve the governance of all registered clearing agencies by reducing the likelihood that conflicts of interest may influence their boards of directors or equivalent governing bodies. “I am pleased to support this adoption because it helps foster more resilient clearinghouses,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “Congress has said that the Commission has an important role...
2023-11-16 1:06 PM EST
Charter Communications to Pay $25 Million Penalty for Unauthorized Stock Buybacks
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 14, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Charter Communications Inc. for violating internal accounting controls requirements when it engaged in stock buybacks not authorized by its board of directors. According to the SEC’s order, Charter’s board authorized company personnel to conduct certain buybacks using trading plans that conform to SEC Rule 10b5-1. Rule 10b5-1 offers protection to companies...
2023-11-14 4:08 PM EST
SEC Announces Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2023
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 14, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it filed 784 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2023, a 3 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, including 501 original, or “stand-alone,” enforcement actions, an 8 percent increase over the prior fiscal year. The SEC also filed 162 "follow-on" administrative proceedings seeking to bar or suspend individuals from certain functions in the securities markets based on...
2023-11-14 3:30 PM EST
SEC Charges Former Co-CEOs of Tech Start-Up Bitwise Industries for Falsifying Documents While Raising $70 Million From Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin, Jr., the former co-CEOs of Fresno, California-based private technology services startup Bitwise Industries Inc., for misleading investors about the company’s finances. Soberal and Olguin have agreed to resolve the charges against them. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Soberal and Olguin made material misrepresentations and falsified...
2023-11-09 1:52 PM EST
SEC Charges Royal Bank of Canada with Internal Accounting Controls Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Canada’s largest bank, Royal Bank of Canada, will pay a $6 million penalty to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the securities laws relating to its accounting for its costs of internally developed software. The SEC’s order finds that, from 2008 through 2020, Royal Bank of Canada’s accounting controls failed to...
2023-11-02 4:16 PM EDT
SEC Charges President/CCO of Prophecy Asset Management Advisory Firm with Multi-Year Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged John Hughes, president and chief compliance officer of registered investment adviser Prophecy Asset Management LP, for his involvement in a multi-year fraud that concealed losses of hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. Prophecy Asset Management advised multiple hedge funds and reported more than $500 million in assets under management. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Hughes...
2023-11-02 3:59 PM EDT
SEC Adopts Rules for the Registration and Regulation of Security-Based Swap Execution Facilities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted new Regulation SE under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to create a regime for the registration and regulation of security-based swap execution facilities (SBSEFs). The new regulatory framework was required under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act relating to the over-the-counter derivatives market. “Adopting Regulation SE fulfills Congress’s...
2023-11-02 10:43 AM EDT
SEC Charges Crypto Company SafeMoon and its Executive Team for Fraud and Unregistered Offering of Crypto Securities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 1, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged SafeMoon LLC, its creator Kyle Nagy, SafeMoon US LLC, and the companies’ Chief Executive Officer, John Karony, and Chief Technology Officer, Thomas Smith, for perpetrating a massive fraudulent scheme through the unregistered sale of the crypto asset security, SafeMoon. According to the SEC’s complaint, the Defendants promised to take the price of the token “Safely to the moon,” but...
2023-11-01 12:44 PM EDT