SEC Charges China-Based Tech Company Cloopen Group with Accounting Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 6, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled accounting fraud charges against Cloopen Group Holding Limited, a China-based provider of cloud communications products and services whose American depositary shares formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The SEC determined not to impose civil penalties against Cloopen because the company self-reported its accounting issues, cooperated extensively with the staff's...
2024-02-06 4:36 PM EST
SEC Adopts Rules to Include Certain Significant Market Participants as "Dealers" or "Government Securities Dealers"
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 6, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted two rules that require market participants who engage in certain dealer roles, in particular those who take on significant liquidity-providing roles in the markets, to register with the SEC, become members of a self-regulatory organization (SRO), and comply with federal securities laws and regulatory obligations. “I am pleased to support this adoption because it requires that firms...
2024-02-06 12:04 PM EST
SEC Charges Founder of American Bitcoin Academy Online Crypto Course with Fraud Targeting Students
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Brian Sewell and his company, Rockwell Capital Management, agreed to settle fraud charges in connection with a scheme that targeted students taking Sewell’s online crypto trading course known as the American Bitcoin Academy. The SEC alleges that the fraudulent scheme cost 15 students $1.2 million. According to the SEC’s complaint, from at least early 2018 to mid-2019, Sewell...
2024-02-02 12:54 PM EST
SEC to Host Law School Summit Highlighting Need for Investor Access to Legal Counsel
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 2, 2024) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the date of its 2024 Investor Advocacy Clinic Summit, where law students and their professors will engage with SEC staff and invited guests about issues addressed and lessons learned while providing free legal services to underrepresented investors. The event, hosted by the SEC's Office of the Ombuds, will be held at SEC Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and livestreamed at...
2024-02-02 9:47 AM EST
SEC Charges Founder of $1.7 Billion "HyperFund" Crypto Pyramid Scheme and Top Promoter with Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 29, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Xue Lee (aka Sam Lee) and Brenda Chunga (aka Bitcoin Beautee) for their involvement in a fraudulent crypto asset pyramid scheme known as HyperFund that raised more than $1.7 billion from investors worldwide. According to the SEC’s complaint, from June 2020 through early 2022, Lee and Chunga promoted HyperFund “membership” packages, which they claimed guaranteed investors high returns,...
2024-01-29 5:57 PM EST
SEC Charges Northern Star SPAC for Material Misrepresentations in Its IPO-Related Disclosures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 25, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Northern Star Investment Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), agreed to settle charges that it made misleading statements in forms filed with the SEC as part of its January 2021 initial public offering (IPO). According to the SEC’s order, Northern Star stated in its SEC filings that neither the company, nor anyone acting on its behalf, had initiated any...
2024-01-25 4:24 PM EST
SEC Charges Chicago-Based Aon Investments and Former Partner with Misleading Pennsylvania Public Employees' Pension Fund
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 25, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Aon Investments USA Inc., a Chicago-based registered investment adviser, and the firm’s former partner, Claire P. Shaughnessy, for misleading their client, the Pennsylvania Public Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), about the reason for a discrepancy between two different calculations by Aon of PSERS’s investment returns for the same period. The SEC’s orders...
2024-01-25 9:24 AM EST
SEC Adopts Rules to Enhance Investor Protections Relating to SPACs, Shell Companies, and Projections
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 24, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted new rules and amendments to enhance disclosures and provide additional investor protection in initial public offerings (IPOs) by special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and in subsequent business combination transactions between SPACs and target companies (de-SPAC transactions). SPAC IPOs and de-SPAC transactions can be used as a means for private companies to enter the public...
2024-01-24 11:18 AM EST
J.P. Morgan to Pay $18 Million for Violating Whistleblower Protection Rule
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS) for impeding hundreds of advisory clients and brokerage customers from reporting potential securities law violations to the SEC. JPMS agreed to pay an $18 million civil penalty to settle the charges. According to the SEC’s order, from March 2020 through July 2023, JPMS regularly asked retail clients to sign confidential...
2024-01-16 8:57 AM EST
SEC Charges Morgan Stanley and Former Executive Pawan Passi with Fraud in Block Trading Business
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - January 12, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged investment banking giant Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and the former head of its equity syndicate desk, Pawan Passi, with a multi-year fraud involving the disclosure of confidential information about the sale of large quantities of stock known as “block trades.” The SEC also charged Morgan Stanley with failing to enforce its policies concerning the misuse of material non-public information...
2024-01-12 8:40 AM EST
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