SEC to Host Municipal Securities Disclosure Conference
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 31, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today opened public registration for its Municipal Securities Disclosure Conference, which will be held on May 10, 2023, at the SEC’s headquarters. The conference, held in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual participation, will bring together a variety of municipal securities market participants, including issuers and investors, to discuss the state of disclosure in the municipal...
2023-03-31 9:52 AM EDT
SEC Charges Hedge Fund Trader and Broker-Dealer Partner in Multi-Million Dollar SPAC Insider Trading Scheme
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 30, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed insider trading charges against Sean Wygovsky, a former trader at a Canadian asset management firm, and Christopher Matthaei, a former partner at a U.S. broker-dealer, for using nonpublic information in advance of at least seven merger announcements involving Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) to earn illicit profits of more than $3.4 million. The SEC’s complaint alleges that...
2023-03-30 4:57 PM EDT
SEC Charges Private Fund Auditor and Audit Engagement Partner with Improper Professional Conduct
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 29, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Spicer Jeffries LLP, an audit firm based in Denver, and audit engagement partner Sean P. Tafaro, for their improper professional conduct in connection with audits of two private funds. According to the SEC’s order, during the audit planning stages, Spicer Jeffries and Tafaro assessed that valuation of investments was a significant fraud risk but did not...
2023-03-29 2:29 PM EDT
SEC Charges Crypto Trading Platform Beaxy and Its Executives for Operating an Unregistered Exchange, Broker, and Clearing Agency
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 29, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the crypto asset trading platform beaxy.com (the Beaxy Platform) and its executives for failing to register as a national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. The SEC also charged the founder of the platform, Artak Hamazaspyan, and a company he controlled, Beaxy Digital, Ltd., with raising $8 million in an unregistered offering of the Beaxy token (BXY) and alleged that...
2023-03-29 10:57 AM EDT
Brazilian Mining Company to Pay $55.9 Million to Settle Charges Related to Misleading Disclosures Prior to Deadly Dam Collapse
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 28, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Vale S.A., a publicly traded Brazilian mining company and one of the largest iron ore producers in the world, agreed to pay $55.9 million to settle charges brought last April stemming from the company’s allegedly false and misleading disclosures about the safety of its dams prior to the January 2019 collapse of the Brumadinho dam that killed 270 people. The SEC’s complaint alleged...
2023-03-28 7:53 PM EDT
SEC Obtains Emergency Relief Against Long Island Investment Adviser and Firm Charged with Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 27, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former broker Surage Kamal Roshan Perera and his firm, Janues Capital Incorporated, with defrauding at least one investor out of millions by lying about investment opportunities and strategies, concealing trading losses, and using funds received from others to give the victim the promised returns in Ponzi-like fashion. The SEC has obtained emergency relief in court, including a temporary...
2023-03-27 6:22 PM EDT
SEC Charges Three Sales Agents at StraightPath Venture Partners With Fraud and Unregistered Broker Activity
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 23, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Scott Hollender, Gabriel Migliano, Jr., and Frank Vecchio for selling interests in shares of pre-IPO companies on behalf of StraightPath Venture Partners LLC, despite not being registered broker-dealers, and for misleading investors about the fees associated with those investments. The Commission previously charged StraightPath Venture Partners, StraightPath Management LLC, and its four...
2023-03-23 12:46 PM EDT
SEC Charges Financial Adviser for Misappropriating More Than $1 Million From Current, Former NBA Players
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 23, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Darryl Matthew Cohen, a former investment adviser at a large financial institution, with misappropriating more than $1 million from three current and former NBA players over a period of two and a half years. According to the SEC’s complaint, from October 2017 through April 2020, Cohen used client funds, without their understanding or authorization, for personal expenditures including to...
2023-03-23 12:20 PM EDT
SEC Charges Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun and his Companies for Fraud and Other Securities Law Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 22, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against crypto asset entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent), for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT). The SEC also charged Sun and his companies with fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for...
2023-03-22 4:00 PM EDT
SEC Proposes to Modernize the Submission of Certain Forms, Filings, and Materials Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 22, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed amendments designed to modernize its information collection and analysis methods by, among other things, proposing that a number of filings be submitted to the Commission electronically on EDGAR using structured data where appropriate. Under current rules, registrants are required to file or otherwise submit many Exchange Act forms, filings, or other submissions in paper form. During...
2023-03-22 11:12 AM EDT
SEC Office of Municipal Securities Issues FAQs for Registration of Municipal Advisors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 20, 2023) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities today announced that it updated its Registration of Municipal Advisors Frequently Asked Questions webpage to add a section, entitled Completion of Form MA, Form MA-I, and Form MA-NR, which provides additional staff guidance on the required information and timelines regarding: Form MA, for an application for municipal advisor registration, annual update of...
2023-03-20 11:58 AM EDT
SEC Charges Cannabis Company American Patriot Brands, CEO, and Others with Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 16, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged American Patriot Brands Inc. (APB), a cannabis cultivation and distribution company, its CEO, and five other entities and individuals for their participation in a long-running scheme in which they raised more than $30 million from more than one hundred investors across the country and siphoned off millions of those funds to enrich themselves. According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in...
2023-03-16 1:52 PM EDT
SEC Reopens Comment Period for Proposed Cybersecurity Risk Management Rules and Amendments for Registered Investment Advisers and Funds
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today reopened the comment period on proposed rules and amendments related to cybersecurity risk management and cybersecurity-related disclosure for registered investment advisers, registered investment companies, and business development companies that were proposed by the Commission on February 9, 2022. The initial comment period ended on April 11, 2022. The reopened comment period will allow...
2023-03-15 1:46 PM EDT
SEC Proposes to Expand and Update Regulation SCI
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed amendments to expand and update Regulation Systems Compliance and Integrity (SCI), the set of rules adopted in 2014 to help address technological vulnerabilities in the U.S. securities markets and improve Commission oversight of the core technology of key U.S. securities markets entities (SCI entities). “I am pleased to support this proposal because, consistent with maintaining orderly...
2023-03-15 1:31 PM EDT
SEC Proposes New Requirements to Address Cybersecurity Risks to the U.S. Securities Markets
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed requirements for broker-dealers, clearing agencies, major security-based swap participants, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board, national securities associations, national securities exchanges, security-based swap data repositories, security-based swap dealers, and transfer agents (collectively, “Market Entities”) to address their cybersecurity risks. “I am pleased to support this...
2023-03-15 12:35 PM EDT
SEC Charges Exiled Chinese Businessman Miles Guo and His Financial Advisor William Je in $850 Million Fraud Scheme
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 15, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged exiled Chinese businessman Miles Guo and his financial advisor William Je for their involvement in unregistered and fraudulent offerings that raised more than $850 million. According to the SEC’s complaint, since April 2020, Guo, also known as Ho Wan Kwok, Miles Kwok, Wengui Guo, and Brother Seven, and his longtime financial advisor, Je, also known as Kin Ming Je, misappropriated a large...
2023-03-15 10:33 AM EDT
SEC Charges IT Services Provider DXC Technology Co. for Misleading Non-GAAP Disclosures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 14, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged DXC Technology Company, an IT services company in Ashburn, Virginia, with making misleading disclosures about its non-GAAP financial performance in multiple reporting periods from 2018 until early 2020. According to the SEC’s order, DXC materially increased its reported non-GAAP net income by negligently misclassifying tens of millions of dollars of expenses as non-GAAP adjustments for...
2023-03-14 4:44 PM EDT
SEC Charges Software Company Blackbaud Inc. for Misleading Disclosures About Ransomware Attack That Impacted Charitable Donors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 9, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Blackbaud Inc., a South Carolina-based public company that provides donor data management software to non-profit organizations, agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges for making misleading disclosures about a 2020 ransomware attack that impacted more than 13,000 customers. The SEC’s order finds that, on July 16, 2020, Blackbaud announced that the ransomware attacker did not...
2023-03-09 4:45 PM EST
SEC Updates List of Firms Using Inaccurate Information to Solicit Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 7, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it updated its list of unregistered entities that use misleading information to solicit primarily non-U.S. investors, adding 96 soliciting entities, three impersonators of genuine firms, and five bogus regulators. The SEC’s list of soliciting entities that have been the subject of investor complaints, known as the Public Alert: Unregistered Soliciting Entities (PAUSE) list, enables...
2023-03-07 10:18 AM EST
SEC Charges Rio Tinto plc with Bribery Controls Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 6, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against global mining and metals company, Rio Tinto plc, for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of a bribery scheme involving a consultant in Guinea. The company has agreed to pay a $15 million civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. The SEC’s order finds that, in July 2011, Rio Tinto hired a French investment banker and close friend of a...
2023-03-06 4:49 PM EST