Colombian Conglomerate Grupo Aval and Its Bank Subsidiary to Pay $40 Million to Settle FCPA Violations
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 10, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Colombian conglomerate Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A., aka Grupo Aval S.A., and its bank subsidiary, Corporación Financiera Colombiana S.A. (Corficolombiana), with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Grupo Aval, whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, agreed to pay $40 million to settle the SEC charges. According to the SEC’s order, Corficolombiana and...
2023-08-10 6:01 PM EDT
Crypto Asset Trading Platform Bittrex and Former CEO to Settle SEC Charges for Operating an Unregistered Exchange, Broker, and Clearing Agency
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 10, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that crypto asset trading platform Bittrex Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO, William Shihara, agreed to settle charges that they operated an unregistered national securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. Bittrex Inc.’s foreign affiliate, Bittrex Global GmbH, also agreed to settle charges that it failed to register as a national securities exchange. As alleged in the...
2023-08-10 5:56 PM EDT
SEC Charges 11 Wall Street Firms with Widespread Recordkeeping Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 8, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 10 firms in their capacity as broker-dealers and one dually registered broker-dealer and investment adviser for widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their employees to maintain and preserve electronic communications. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders. They acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping...
2023-08-08 8:17 AM EDT
Fund Administrator Charged For Missing Red Flags
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 7, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Theorem Fund Services LLC (TFS), a fund administrator based in Boca Raton, Florida, for failing to respond to red flags relating to a fraud against a private fund and its investors. According to the SEC’s order, TFS provided administration services to a fund managed by EIA All Weather Alpha Fund Partners and Andrew M. Middlebrooks, both of whom the SEC charged...
2023-08-07 10:43 AM EDT
SEC Awards More Than $104 Million to Seven Whistleblowers
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 4, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced awards of more than $104 million to seven individuals whose information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action and related actions brought by another agency. Today’s combined award is the fourth largest in the SEC’s whistleblower program’s history. The seven whistleblowers were composed of two sets of joint claimants and three single claimants, and each provided...
2023-08-04 11:20 AM EDT
SEC Obtains Emergency Relief to Halt Utah-Based Company's Crypto Asset Fraud Scheme Involving 18 Defendants
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 3, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it obtained a temporary asset freeze, restraining order, and other emergency relief against Digital Licensing Inc., a Draper, Utah based entity doing business as "DEBT Box," as well as the company's four principals, Jason Anderson, his brother Jacob Anderson, Schad Brannon, and Roydon Nelson, and 13 other defendants in connection with a fraudulent scheme to sell crypto asset...
2023-08-03 1:16 PM EDT
SEC Charges Florida Investment Adviser a Second Time for Insider Trading
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed insider trading charges against Charles Rustin Holzer, a family office executive and former broker who last year settled SEC charges that he traded in options of Dun & Bradstreet Corp. (DNB) on inside information. The SEC’s latest complaint alleges that, in addition to the options trades that were the subject of the SEC’s prior lawsuit, Holzer also placed unlawful trades in DNB stock...
2023-08-02 11:20 AM EDT
SEC Charges New Jersey-Based ETF Manager for Fraudulent Conduct and Bars Founder
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - August 1, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Samuel Masucci and entities he founded and controls with disadvantaging an exchange traded fund (ETF) they managed and misleading the ETF’s trustees to obtain $20 million in rescue financing to avoid a possible bankruptcy. Masucci and the entities agreed to pay a combined $4.4 million to settle the charges. The SEC’s order finds that, in 2019, in exchange for $20 million in financing and...
2023-08-01 12:39 PM EDT
SEC Charges Hex Founder Richard Heart with Misappropriating Millions of Dollars of Investor Funds from Unregistered Crypto Asset Securities Offerings that Raised more than $1 Billion
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 31, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Richard Heart (aka Richard Schueler) and three unincorporated entities that he controls, Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, with conducting unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities that raised more than $1 billion in crypto assets from investors. The SEC also charged Heart and PulseChain with fraud for misappropriating at least $12 million of offering proceeds to purchase luxury goods...
2023-07-31 11:35 AM EDT
SEC Charges Florida Resident with Operating $35 Million Ponzi Scheme that Targeted Church Members
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 27, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Brent Seaman of Naples, Florida, and various entities he managed for fraudulently raising approximately $35 million from at least 60 investors through an unregistered securities offering. Many of these investors were elderly, retired, and connected to a Naples church where Seaman was an active member. The SEC’s complaint alleges that, from approximately June 2019 until September 2022,...
2023-07-27 1:04 PM EDT
SEC Proposes New Requirements to Address Risks to Investors From Conflicts of Interest Associated With the Use of Predictive Data Analytics by Broker-Dealers and Investment Advisers
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 26, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed new rules that would require broker-dealers and investment advisers (collectively, “firms”) to take certain steps to address conflicts of interest associated with their use of predictive data analytics and similar technologies to interact with investors to prevent firms from placing their interests ahead of investors’ interests. “We live in an historic, transformational age with regard...
2023-07-26 12:39 PM EDT
SEC Adopts Rules on Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure by Public Companies
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 26, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rules requiring registrants to disclose material cybersecurity incidents they experience and to disclose on an annual basis material information regarding their cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance. The Commission also adopted rules requiring foreign private issuers to make comparable disclosures. “Whether a company loses a factory in a fire — or millions of files in a...
2023-07-26 11:48 AM EDT
SEC Charges Investor Joseph C. Lewis and Associates with Insider Trading
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 26, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged investor Joseph C. Lewis for illegally tipping material nonpublic information to his then-girlfriend, Carolyn W. Carter, as well as his two private pilots, Patrick J. O’Connor and Bryan L. Waugh, so that each would use this information to execute trades. The SEC also charged Carter, O’Connor, and Waugh with using that information to trade and reap combined profits of more than $545,000....
2023-07-26 9:39 AM EDT
SEC Names Natasha Vij Greiner and Keith E. Cassidy Interim Acting Co-Directors of the Division of Examinations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 25, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Natasha Vij Greiner and Keith E. Cassidy have been named interim Acting Co-Directors of the Division of Examinations, effective immediately, while Division Director Richard Best is on extended medical leave from the agency. “My thoughts are with Rich as he’s away from the agency on medical leave,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “I thank Natasha and Keith for stepping in on an interim...
2023-07-25 11:16 AM EDT
SEC, NASAA, and Wisconsin DFI to host Investor Roundtable in Madison, Wisconsin on July 25
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 21, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it will join the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) and Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) for a Joint Public Roundtable at the DFI headquarters on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, at 10 a.m. CT. The afternoon session of the roundtable will be webcast on the SEC website. The event will consist of the following key sessions: An Investor Roundtable...
2023-07-21 11:14 AM EDT
SEC Charges Digital World SPAC for Material Misrepresentations to Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 20, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled fraud charges against Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), for making material misrepresentations in forms filed with the SEC as part of DWAC’s initial public offering and proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG). The Commission finds that DWAC misled investors and the SEC by failing to disclose that...
2023-07-20 4:59 PM EDT
SEC Charges Twice-Convicted Fraudster Eliyahu Weinstein and Five Others with $38 Million Ponzi-Like Scheme to Defraud Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 19, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged six individuals with a multi-million dollar Ponzi-like fraud scheme orchestrated by criminal recidivist Eliyahu Weinstein of Lakewood, New Jersey. Along with Weinstein, the SEC charged Aryeh L. Bromberg, Joel L. Wittels, Richard M. Curry, Christopher J. Anderson, and Alaa Mohamed Hattab for their roles in the fraudulent scheme, which involved raising investments to fund purported deals to...
2023-07-19 3:09 PM EDT
SEC Charges Celsius Network Limited and Founder Alex Mashinsky with Fraud and Unregistered Offer and Sale of Securities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 13, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Celsius Network Limited (Celsius) and its founder and former CEO, Alex Mashinsky, for violating registration and anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws, including by failing to register the offers and sales of Celsius’s crypto lending product, the Earn Interest Program; making false and misleading statements to investors of the Earn Interest Program and Celsius’s own crypto...
2023-07-13 11:42 AM EDT
SEC Charges RSE Markets Inc. for Operating an Unregistered Securities Exchange
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 12, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against RSE Markets Inc. for operating as an unregistered exchange by maintaining and providing a marketplace and facilities that brought together purchasers and sellers of securities, specifically equity interests in “collectible assets” such as valuable cars and watches. The SEC’s order finds that, between July 1, 2018, and November 20, 2021, RSE operated the Rally...
2023-07-12 3:07 PM EDT
SEC Awards Whistleblower More Than $9 Million
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - July 12, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced an award of more than $9 million to a whistleblower whose significant and detailed information and assistance led to a successful SEC enforcement action. After repeatedly internally reporting the concerns, the whistleblower alerted SEC’s Enforcement Division to the conduct, prompting the opening of the investigation. In addition, the whistleblower provided substantial and ongoing...
2023-07-12 2:23 PM EDT