SEC Charges DraftKings with Selectively Disclosing Nonpublic Information Via CEO's Social Media Accounts
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 26, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged DraftKings Inc. with selectively disclosing material, nonpublic information to investors who followed or otherwise viewed the company CEO’s social media accounts without disclosing that same information to all investors, in violation of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD). DraftKings agreed to pay a $200,000 civil penalty to settle the SEC’s charges. The order finds that, on July 27,...
2024-09-26 4:37 PM EDT
SEC Levies More Than $3.8 Million in Penalties in Sweep of Late Beneficial Ownership and Insider Transaction Reports
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 25, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against 23 entities and individuals for failures to timely report information about their holdings and transactions in public company stock. Two public companies were also charged for contributing to filing failures by their officers and directors and failing to report their insiders’ filing delinquencies as required. The charges announced today stem from SEC...
2024-09-25 4:22 PM EDT
SEC Charges Merrill Lynch and Harvest Volatility Management for Ignoring Client Instructions
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 25, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Harvest Volatility Management LLC and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. for exceeding clients’ designated investment limits over a two-year period beginning in March 2016, which resulted in clients paying higher fees, being subjected to increased market exposure, and incurring investment losses. As part of the separate settlements, Harvest and Merrill have...
2024-09-25 9:23 AM EDT
SEC Charges Former CEO of Tech Startup SKAEL with $30 Million Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 24, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Baba Nadimpalli, the co-founder and former CEO of SKAEL Inc., a San Francisco-based private technology company that developed business automation software. According to the SEC’s complaint, from January 2021 through February 2022, Nadimpalli raised more than $30 million from investors by falsely claiming that SKAEL had millions of dollars in annually recurring...
2024-09-24 3:47 PM EDT
SEC Charges Crypto Companies TrustToken and TrueCoin With Defrauding Investors Regarding Stablecoin Investment Program
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 24, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against TrueCoin LLC and TrustToken Inc. for their fraudulent and unregistered sales of investment contracts involving TrueUSD (TUSD), a purported stablecoin. According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, TrueCoin was an issuer of TUSD and TrustToken was the developer and operator of TrueFi, a so-called...
2024-09-24 1:56 PM EDT
Eleven Firms to Pay More Than $88 Million Combined to Settle SEC's Charges for Widespread Recordkeeping Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 24, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 12 firms, comprising broker-dealers, investment advisers, and one dually-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, for widespread and longstanding failures by the firms and their personnel to maintain and preserve electronic communications in violation of recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their...
2024-09-24 9:22 AM EDT
Advisory Firm Atom Investors, Charged with Recordkeeping Violations, Avoids Civil Penalty Because of Self-Reporting, Substantial Cooperation, and Prompt Remediation
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 23, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Texas-based registered investment adviser Atom Investors LP for its failure to maintain and preserve off-channel communications in violation of the recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws. The Commission did not impose a penalty because Atom Investors self-reported the conduct, promptly remediated the violations, and provided substantial cooperation...
2024-09-23 3:11 PM EDT
SEC to Hold Virtual National Compliance Outreach Seminar for Investment Companies and Investment Advisers
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 20, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Compliance Outreach Program announced today that it will host a virtual national seminar for investment companies and investment advisers on Nov. 7, 2024. This seminar is intended to help Chief Compliance Officers and other senior personnel at investment companies and investment advisory firms enhance their compliance programs for the protection of investors. The conference will include panel...
2024-09-20 10:48 AM EDT
Small Business Forum's Report to Congress Highlights Recommendations to Improve Capital Raising
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 19, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today released a report to Congress summarizing policy recommendations made during the SEC’s 43rd Annual Small Business Forum. The report provides a summary of the forum proceedings, including the recommendations developed by participants for changes to the capital raising framework and the Commission’s responses to those recommendations. The forum took place over three virtual sessions on April...
2024-09-19 3:31 PM EDT
SEC Charges Advisory Firm Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust with Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 19, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced registered investment adviser Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust (MIMBT) will pay a total of $79.8 million to settle charges for overvaluing approximately 4,900 largely illiquid collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) held in 20 advisory accounts, including 11 retail mutual funds, and for executing hundreds of cross trades between advisory clients that favored...
2024-09-19 11:44 AM EDT
SEC Charges Advisory Firm Inspire Investing With Misleading Investors Regarding its Investment Strategy
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 19, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Idaho-based investment adviser Inspire Investing LLC with making misleading statements and for compliance failures related to the execution of its “biblically responsible investing” strategy. According to the SEC’s order, Inspire Investing represented that it used a data-driven methodology to evaluate companies and that it would not invest in companies that had “any degree of...
2024-09-19 11:12 AM EDT
SEC Charges DeFi Platform Rari Capital and its Founders With Misleading Investors and Acting as Unregistered Brokers
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 18, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Rari Capital, Inc., a supposed decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, and its co-founders, Jai Bhavnani, Jack Lipstone, and David Lucid, for misleading investors and engaging in unregistered broker activity in connection with their operation of two blockchain-based investment platforms that, at their peak, collectively held crypto assets worth more than $1...
2024-09-18 3:20 PM EDT
SEC Adopts Rules to Amend Minimum Pricing Increments and Access Fee Caps and to Enhance the Transparency of Better Priced Orders
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 18, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted amendments to certain rules under Regulation NMS to adopt an additional minimum pricing increment, or “tick size,” for the quoting of certain NMS stocks, reduce the access fee caps for protected quotations of trading centers, increase the transparency of exchange fees and rebates, and accelerate the implementation of rules that will make information about the market’s best priced,...
2024-09-18 12:10 PM EDT
SEC Charges Broker-Dealer First Horizon With Regulation Best Interest Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 18, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against registered broker-dealer First Horizon Advisors, Inc. for failing to maintain and enforce policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI). The charges relate to First Horizon’s recommendations of a type of derivative security called a structured note. First Horizon agreed to pay a civil penalty of $325,000 to...
2024-09-18 9:24 AM EDT
SEC Charges 11 Institutional Investment Managers with Failing to Report Certain Securities Holdings
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 11 institutional investment managers for failing to file reports, known as Forms 13F, that they were required to file because they have discretion over more than $100 million in certain securities. Two of the entities, Nationale-Nederlanden Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne S.A. (Nationale-Nederlanden) and NEPC, LLC, were also charged with failing to file Forms 13H...
2024-09-17 4:26 PM EDT
SEC Charges Multiple Individuals and Entities in Relationship Investment Scams
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged five entities and three individuals in connection with two relationship investment scams involving fake crypto asset trading platforms NanoBit and CoinW6, respectively. The SEC’s two complaints allege that the defendants solicited investors via social media apps, lied to them to gain their trust and confidence, and then stole their money. These charges are the SEC’s first enforcement...
2024-09-17 2:29 PM EDT
Audit Firm Prager Metis Settles SEC Charges for Negligence in FTX Audits and for Violating Auditor Independence Requirements
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Prager Metis CPAs, LLC (Prager) and its California professional services firm, Prager Metis CPAs LLP, (collectively, the Prager Entities) agreed to pay $1.95 million to resolve two actions alleging misconduct in its audits of the now-defunct crypto asset trading platform, FTX, and auditor independence violations. In one of the actions, the SEC alleges that Prager...
2024-09-17 12:34 PM EDT
SEC Charges 12 Municipal Advisors With Recordkeeping Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 17, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against 12 municipal advisors for failures by the firms and their personnel to maintain and preserve certain electronic communications. The firms agreed to pay combined civil penalties of more than $1.3 million to settle the SEC’s charges. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders, acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions...
2024-09-17 9:18 AM EDT
SEC Charges Former Chairman and CEO of Tech Co. Kubient With Fraud and Lying to Auditors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 16, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Paul D. Roberts, the former Chair, CEO, and president of Kubient Inc.; Joshua A. Weiss, the company’s former chief financial officer; and Grainne M. Coen, the company’s former audit committee chair, for their roles in a scheme in which Kubient overstated and misrepresented its revenue in connection with two public stock offerings. According to the SEC’s complaint...
2024-09-16 4:54 PM EDT
SEC Charges Former Financial Consultant for Providing Father and Friends Inside Information Regarding Firm's Client
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 13, 2024) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Federico Nannini, his father, and two of his friends for insider trading in advance of the pending acquisition of Infrastructure and Energy Alternatives, Inc. (IEA) by MasTec Inc., a client of the financial consulting firm where Nannini worked as an associate. According to the SEC’s complaint, on June 7, 2022, Federico Nannini, of Coral Gables, Florida, was entrusted with material...
2024-09-13 3:37 PM EDT