SEC Charges 17 Individuals in $300 Million Crypto-Asset Ponzi Scheme Targeting the Latino Community
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 14, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged 17 individuals for their roles in a $300 million Ponzi scheme that involved Houston, Texas-based CryptoFX LLC and targeted more than 40,000 predominantly Latino investors in the U.S. and two other countries. Today’s complaint follows the SEC’s successful emergency action in September 2022 that halted the CryptoFX scheme and charged its two main principals, Mauricio Chavez and Giorgio...
2024-03-14 4:26 PM EDT
SEC Charges Tallgrass Energy's Former Board Member Roy Cook and Four Others with Insider Trading in Advance of Blackstone Acquisition
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 12, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against Roy Cook, a former board member of Tallgrass Energy LP, and four of his friends for trading on material nonpublic information in advance of a public announcement that Blackstone Infrastructure Partners had offered to acquire Tallgrass and take it private. The SEC also charged Cook for failing to file required disclosure reports concerning securities...
2024-03-12 12:30 PM EDT
SEC Charges Skechers with Making Undisclosed Payments to Executives' Family Members
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 7, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Skechers U.S.A. Inc., a footwear company based in California, agreed to settle charges for failing to disclose payments for the benefit of its executives and their immediate family members. Skechers agreed to pay a $1.25 million civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. According to the SEC’s order, from 2019 through 2022, Skechers did not comply with related person transaction...
2024-03-07 5:20 PM EST
SEC Adopts Amendments to Enhance Disclosure of Order Execution Information
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 6, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rule amendments that update the disclosure required under Rule 605 of Regulation NMS for order executions in national market system stocks (NMS stocks), which are stocks listed on a national securities exchange. Rule 605 was adopted in 2000 to help the public compare and evaluate execution quality at different market centers. “In the 24 years since Rule 605 was adopted, our equity markets...
2024-03-06 1:29 PM EST
SEC Adopts Rules to Enhance and Standardize Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 6, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rules to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures by public companies and in public offerings. The final rules reflect the Commission’s efforts to respond to investors’ demand for more consistent, comparable, and reliable information about the financial effects of climate-related risks on a registrant’s operations and how it manages those risks while balancing concerns about...
2024-03-06 12:44 PM EST
SEC Charges Advisory Firm HG Vora for Disclosure Failures Ahead of Ryder Acquisition Bid
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - March 1, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against New York-based investment adviser HG Vora Capital Management LLC for its failure to make timely ownership disclosures in the lead-up to its May 2022 acquisition bid for trucking fleet company Ryder System Inc. HG Vora agreed to pay a $950,000 civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. Under the federal securities laws, a company that owns more than five percent...
2024-03-01 10:12 AM EST
SEC Charges Lordstown Motors with Misleading Investors about Company's Flagship Electric Vehicle
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 29, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Lordstown Motors Corp. with misleading investors about the sales prospects of Lordstown’s flagship electric pickup truck, the Endurance. Lordstown, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023, went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in 2020. According to the SEC’s settled order, Lordstown exaggerated the demand for the Endurance, claiming that the company had...
2024-02-29 4:38 PM EST
SEC Investor Advisory Committee to Discuss Proposals to Improve Equity Market Structure and Examine the Use of Materiality as a Disclosure Standard
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 29, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting on March 7 at 10 a.m. ET at the SEC Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The meeting will also be webcast on the SEC website. The committee will host two panels: Discussing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Proposals to Improve Equity Market Structure; and Examining the Use of Materiality as a Disclosure Standard – Can the Definition...
2024-02-29 11:12 AM EST
SEC Announces Departure of William Birdthistle; Natasha Vij Greiner Named Director of the Division of Investment Management
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that William Birdthistle, the Director of the Division of Investment Management, will depart the agency, effective March 8, 2024. Natasha Vij Greiner, currently the Deputy Director of the Division of Examinations, will be named Director of the Division of Investment Management upon Mr. Birdthistle’s departure. The Division oversees regulatory policy for investment advisers and...
2024-02-28 11:59 AM EST
SEC Charges Former Alfi CEO Paul Pereira with Fraud for Making False Statements on Social Media
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 27, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Paul A. Pereira, the former CEO and co-founder of Alfi, Inc., with making materially false and misleading statements on social media about the company’s financial and performance metrics in an attempt to boost the now defunct company’s stock price. According to the SEC's complaint, while serving as the CEO of Alfi, a Florida-based advertising technology company, and under the...
2024-02-27 4:48 PM EST
SEC Updates Ethics Rules Governing Securities Trading by Agency Personnel
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 22, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted amendments to its ethics rules to strengthen and modernize its ethics compliance program. The amendments update the SEC’s existing, robust ethics requirements that govern the securities holdings and transactions of all agency employees, their spouses, and minor children. The rule was adopted jointly with the Office of Government Ethics. “I was pleased to support today’s adoption of...
2024-02-22 5:17 PM EST
SEC Charges Husband of Energy Company Manager with Insider Trading
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 22, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Tyler Loudon of Houston, Texas, with insider trading ahead of a February 2023 announcement that London-based oil and gas company BP p.l.c. agreed to acquire TravelCenters of America Inc., a full-service truck stop and travel center company headquartered in Ohio. Loudon allegedly made $1.76 million in illegal profits from his trading. According to the SEC’s complaint, Loudon allegedly...
2024-02-22 5:06 PM EST
SEC Small Business Advisory Committee to Discuss the Accredited Investor Definition and the State of the IPO Market
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee today released the agenda for its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, which will include a discussion of the accredited investor definition and initial public offerings (IPOs). Members of the public can watch the live meeting via webcast on www.sec.gov. The Committee, which provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on rules, regulations,...
2024-02-16 12:29 PM EST
SEC Charges TIAA Subsidiary for Failing to Act in the Best Interest of Retail Customers
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that registered broker-dealer TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services LLC (TC Services), a subsidiary of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), will pay more than $2.2 million to settle charges that it failed to comply with Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) in connection with recommendations to retail customers to open a TIAA Individual Retirement...
2024-02-16 11:21 AM EST
SEC Publishes Annual Staff Report on Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Credit Ratings published its annual Staff Report to Congress today on Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs), commonly known as credit rating agencies, to provide findings on its examinations of the agencies, and to discuss the state of competition, transparency, and conflicts of interest among them. “The oversight of Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating...
2024-02-16 10:15 AM EST
SEC Charges Van Eck Associates for Failing to Disclose Influencer's Role in Connection with ETF Launch
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that registered investment adviser Van Eck Associates Corporation has agreed to pay a $1.75 million civil penalty to settle charges that it failed to disclose a social media influencer’s role in the launch of its new exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to the SEC’s order, in March 2021, Van Eck Associates launched the VanEck Social Sentiment ETF (NYSE: BUZZ) to track an index...
2024-02-16 9:11 AM EST
SEC Proposes Rule to Update Definition of Qualifying Venture Capital Funds
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 14, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed a rule that would update the dollar threshold for a fund to qualify as a “qualifying venture capital fund” for purposes of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (Act). The rule would update the dollar threshold to $12 million aggregate capital contributions and uncalled committed capital, up from the current standard of $10 million. Qualifying venture capital funds are excluded from the...
2024-02-14 3:23 PM EST
Sixteen Firms to Pay More Than $81 Million Combined to Settle Charges for Widespread Recordkeeping Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 9, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against five broker-dealers, seven dually registered broker-dealers and investment advisers, and four affiliated investment advisers 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, acknowledged that their conduct violated...
2024-02-09 9:14 AM EST
SEC Adopts Amendments to Enhance Private Fund Reporting
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 8, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted amendments to Form PF, the confidential reporting form for certain SEC-registered investment advisers to private funds, including those that also are registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as commodity pool operators or commodity trading advisers. The amendments, which the CFTC concurrently adopted, are designed to enhance the ability of the Financial Stability...
2024-02-08 3:29 PM EST
SEC Charges TradeStation Crypto for Unregistered Offer and Sale of Crypto Asset Lending Product
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - February 7, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against TradeStation Crypto, Inc., based in Plantation, Florida, for failing to register the offer and sale of a crypto lending product that allowed U.S. investors to deposit or purchase crypto assets in a TradeStation account in exchange for the company’s promise to pay interest. To settle the SEC’s charges, TradeStation agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty. According to the...
2024-02-07 1:21 PM EST