SEC Adopts Rules to Improve Clearing Agency Governance and Mitigate Conflicts of Interest
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted new rules to improve the governance of all registered clearing agencies by reducing the likelihood that conflicts of interest may influence their boards of directors or equivalent governing bodies. “I am pleased to support this adoption because it helps foster more resilient clearinghouses,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “Congress has said that the Commission has an important role...
2023-11-16 1:06 PM EST
Charter Communications to Pay $25 Million Penalty for Unauthorized Stock Buybacks
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 14, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Charter Communications Inc. for violating internal accounting controls requirements when it engaged in stock buybacks not authorized by its board of directors. According to the SEC’s order, Charter’s board authorized company personnel to conduct certain buybacks using trading plans that conform to SEC Rule 10b5-1. Rule 10b5-1 offers protection to companies...
2023-11-14 4:08 PM EST
SEC Announces Enforcement Results for Fiscal Year 2023
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 14, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it filed 784 total enforcement actions in fiscal year 2023, a 3 percent increase over fiscal year 2022, including 501 original, or “stand-alone,” enforcement actions, an 8 percent increase over the prior fiscal year. The SEC also filed 162 "follow-on" administrative proceedings seeking to bar or suspend individuals from certain functions in the securities markets based on...
2023-11-14 3:30 PM EST
SEC Charges Former Co-CEOs of Tech Start-Up Bitwise Industries for Falsifying Documents While Raising $70 Million From Investors
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 9, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin, Jr., the former co-CEOs of Fresno, California-based private technology services startup Bitwise Industries Inc., for misleading investors about the company’s finances. Soberal and Olguin have agreed to resolve the charges against them. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Soberal and Olguin made material misrepresentations and falsified...
2023-11-09 1:52 PM EST
SEC Charges Royal Bank of Canada with Internal Accounting Controls Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Canada’s largest bank, Royal Bank of Canada, will pay a $6 million penalty to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the securities laws relating to its accounting for its costs of internally developed software. The SEC’s order finds that, from 2008 through 2020, Royal Bank of Canada’s accounting controls failed to...
2023-11-02 4:16 PM EDT
SEC Charges President/CCO of Prophecy Asset Management Advisory Firm with Multi-Year Fraud
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged John Hughes, president and chief compliance officer of registered investment adviser Prophecy Asset Management LP, for his involvement in a multi-year fraud that concealed losses of hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. Prophecy Asset Management advised multiple hedge funds and reported more than $500 million in assets under management. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Hughes...
2023-11-02 3:59 PM EDT
SEC Adopts Rules for the Registration and Regulation of Security-Based Swap Execution Facilities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted new Regulation SE under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to create a regime for the registration and regulation of security-based swap execution facilities (SBSEFs). The new regulatory framework was required under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act relating to the over-the-counter derivatives market. “Adopting Regulation SE fulfills Congress’s...
2023-11-02 10:43 AM EDT
SEC Charges Crypto Company SafeMoon and its Executive Team for Fraud and Unregistered Offering of Crypto Securities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - November 1, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged SafeMoon LLC, its creator Kyle Nagy, SafeMoon US LLC, and the companies’ Chief Executive Officer, John Karony, and Chief Technology Officer, Thomas Smith, for perpetrating a massive fraudulent scheme through the unregistered sale of the crypto asset security, SafeMoon. According to the SEC’s complaint, the Defendants promised to take the price of the token “Safely to the moon,” but...
2023-11-01 12:44 PM EDT
SEC Charges Four Long Island Men with Perpetrating $2 Million "Free-Riding" Scheme
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 31, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced fraud charges against Eduardo Hernandez, Christopher Flagg, Daquan Lloyd, and Corey Ortiz, all currently or formerly of Long Island, New York, for perpetrating a multi-year “free-riding” scheme that generated more than $2 million in illicit profits. The SEC alleges that, from approximately November 2018 through January 2022, the defendants opened brokerage accounts (the victim...
2023-10-31 1:58 PM EDT
SEC Charges SolarWinds and Chief Information Security Officer with Fraud, Internal Control Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 30, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against Austin, Texas-based software company SolarWinds Corporation and its chief information security officer, Timothy G. Brown, for fraud and internal control failures relating to allegedly known cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities. The complaint alleges that, from at least its October 2018 initial public offering through at least its December 2020 announcement that it...
2023-10-30 4:40 PM EDT
SEC Charges BlackRock with Failing to Properly Disclose Investments by Publicly Traded Fund it Advised
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 24, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged BlackRock Advisors, LLC, an investment adviser, for failing to accurately describe investments in the entertainment industry that comprised a significant portion of a publicly traded fund it advised. To settle the charges, BlackRock agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty. The SEC’s order finds that, from 2015 to 2019, BlackRock Multi-Sector Income Trust (BIT) made significant...
2023-10-24 4:24 PM EDT
SEC Proposes Rule to Address Volume-Based Exchange Transaction Pricing for NMS Stocks
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed a new rule that would prohibit national securities exchanges from offering volume-based transaction pricing in connection with the execution of agency or riskless principal (“agency-related”) orders in NMS stocks. The proposal also would require national securities exchanges to have certain anti-evasion rules and written policies and procedures and disclose certain information if they...
2023-10-18 11:24 AM EDT
SEC Obtains Emergency Relief To Halt Nearly $130 Million Fraud Targeting Indian American Community
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 16, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it obtained a temporary restraining order, asset freeze, and other emergency relief to halt an ongoing fraud targeting the Indian American community that has raised nearly $130 million since April 2021. The fraud is allegedly being conducted by Nanban Ventures LLC, its three founders Gopala Krishnan (aka GK), Manivannan Shanmugam, and Sakthivel Palani Gounder (collectively,...
2023-10-16 3:10 PM EDT
SEC Division of Examinations Announces 2024 Priorities
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 16, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Examinations today released its 2024 examination priorities to inform investors and registrants of the key risks, examination topics, and priorities that the Division plans to focus on in the upcoming year. This year’s examinations will prioritize areas that pose emerging risks to investors or the markets in addition to core and perennial risk areas. “The Division of Examinations plays...
2023-10-16 11:02 AM EDT
SEC Adopts Rule to Increase Transparency Into Short Selling and Amendment to CAT NMS Plan for Purposes of Short Sale Data Collection
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 13, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted new Rule 13f-2 to provide greater transparency to investors and other market participants by increasing the public availability of short sale related data. Congress directed the SEC in Section 929X of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to promulgate rules to make certain short sale data publicly available. “In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress directed the SEC to enhance the...
2023-10-13 12:24 PM EDT
SEC Adopts Amendments to Rules Governing Beneficial Ownership Reporting
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 10, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today adopted rule amendments governing beneficial ownership reporting under Sections 13(d) and 13(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The amendments update Regulation 13D-G to require market participants to provide more timely information on their positions to meet the needs of investors in today’s financial markets. “Today’s adoption updates rules that first went into effect more than 50...
2023-10-10 1:31 PM EDT
SEC Spotlights Due Diligence During World Investor Week 2023
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - October 2, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced it will highlight the importance of investor education and protection during World Investor Week (WIW) 2023, which takes place October 2-8. Arising technologies and new digital tools are making it easier and quicker to invest. Taking time to do due diligence can help investors avoid fraud and make better informed investment decisions. This marks the seventh year of WIW, a global...
2023-10-02 11:08 AM EDT
SEC, MSRB, & FINRA to Hold Virtual Compliance Outreach Program
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission, Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today announced that registration is open for a virtual Compliance Outreach Program for municipal market professionals. The free webcast is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, December 7, 2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. The program will provide municipal market participants an...
2023-09-29 3:11 PM EDT
SEC Charges International Accounting Firm Prager Metis with Hundreds of Auditor Independence Violations
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against accounting firm Prager Metis CPAs, LLC and its California professional services firm, Prager Metis CPAs LLP, (together, Prager) for violating auditor independence rules and for aiding and abetting their clients’ violations of federal securities laws. According to the SEC’s complaint, between approximately December 2017 and October 2020, Prager improperly included...
2023-09-29 11:40 AM EDT
SEC Charges 10 Firms with Widespread Recordkeeping Failures
Washington, D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 29, 2023) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against five broker-dealers, three dually registered broker-dealers and investment advisers, and two affiliated investment advisers for widespread and longstanding failures to maintain and preserve electronic communications. The firms admitted the facts set forth in their respective SEC orders and acknowledged that their conduct violated recordkeeping provisions of the...
2023-09-29 9:24 AM EDT