SEC Charges Woodbridge Directors, Ivan Acevedo and Dane Roseman with Fraud
On April 11, 2019, the SEC charged two former directors of investments at Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC for their roles in its massive Ponzi scheme. The defendants, California-based Ivan Acevedo and Dane Roseman, were separately arrested and charged by criminal authorities, along with Woodbridge owner Robert H. Shapiro.
The SEC previously charged Woodbridge and Shapiro, and Woodbridge’s highest-earning unregistered brokers. In January, a federal court in Florida ordered Woodbridge, related companies, and Shapiro together to pay $1 billion for operating this Ponzi scheme. Read More
SEC Charges Arif Naqvi and Dubai-Based Advisory Firm
On April 11, 2019, the SEC charged Arif Naqvi and Abraaj Investment Management Limited, a Dubai-based investment advisory firm, with misappropriating funds from a private equity fund client.
The SEC alleges that Arif Naqvi and his firm raised money for the Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund (“Health Fund”), collecting more than $100 million over three years from U.S.-based charitable organizations and other U.S. investors. According to the SEC’s complaint, Arif Naqvi misappropriated money from the Health Fund and commingled the assets with corporate funds of Abraaj Investment Management Limited and its parent company, and used it for purposes unrelated to the Health Fund. The SEC alleges that Arif Naqvi and his firm made misrepresentations to investors and issued false and misleading financial statements to hide that they were spending investor money in unrelated ways. Read More
SEC Charges Investment Adviser, Gonzalo Ortiz with Securities Fraud
The SEC filed a civil injunctive action on April 10,2019, charging a New Jersey resident, Gonzalo Ortiz with defrauding an investor by lying about his trading success, concealing trading losses, and misappropriating funds.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, alleges that Gonzalo Ortiz, of Hackensack, New Jersey, falsely touted his success in investing in stocks and promised the investor a minimum 50% return in a year, and induced the investor to give him control of over $570,000 the investor’s retirement savings. The complaint alleges that contrary to these promises, Gonzalo Ortiz misappropriated almost half of the funds and invested the other funds in high-risk microcap companies that generated significant losses. Gonzalo Ortiz then concealed the misappropriation and losses by providing the investor with a phony account statement that falsely showed high returns. According to the complaint, Gonzalo Ortiz misappropriated approximately $224,500 of the investor’s money, and lost approximately $290,000 through his trading. Read More
SEC Charges Fifteen Unregistered Brokers for Illegal Offering of Intertech Solutions
On April 9,2019, the SEC charged fifteen individuals with acting as unregistered brokers or aiding-and-abetting such activity in connection with Intertech Solutions, Inc.’s fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings.
The SEC’s complaints allege that Alexander Bevil, Richard Bohnsack, Daniel Broyles, Charles Davis, Michael Duke, Joel Duncan, Martin Lewis, Mark Parman, William Roth, Paula Saccomanno, Kenneth Shelton, Billy Ray Statham, Jr., Glenn Story, Dennis Swerdlen, and Harold Wasserman were hired by Intertech Solutions to engage in or facilitate cold-call solicitations of hundreds of prospective investors throughout the United States and Canada from at least February 2014 through December 2016. The complaints allege that, as a result of the defendants’ conduct, Intertech Solutions raised over $7 million from retail investors. According to the complaints, Intertech Solutions paid the defendants exorbitant commissions ranging from 35% to 50% of the funds provided by each investor. The complaints allege that the defendants did not disclose their commission rates to investors and instead distributed private placement memoranda that indicated that only 10% of investor proceeds would be used as commissions. The SEC previously charged Intertech Solutions and its control persons with orchestrating the fraudulent and unregistered offerings. Read More
SEC Charges Former Seaworld Associate General Counsel, Paul Powers with Insider Trading
On April 10, 2019, the SEC charged Paul Powers, a former senior lawyer at SeaWorld Entertainment Inc with insider trading based on nonpublic information that the company’s revenue would be better than anticipated for the second quarter of 2018.
The SEC alleges that Paul Powers had early access to key revenue information as the company’s associate general counsel and assistant secretary, and he purchased 18,000 shares of SeaWorld stock the day after he received a confidential draft of the 2018 second quarter earnings release that detailed a strong financial performance by the company after a lengthy period of decline. According to the SEC’s complaint, Paul Powers immediately sold his SeaWorld shares for approximately $65,000 in illicit profits after the company announced its positive earnings and the company’s stock price increased by 17 percent. Read More
Final Judgment Against Robert DePalo, a Broker Charged with Stealing from Investors
On February 5, 2019, the SEC obtained a final judgment against a New York-based broker, Robert DePalo who was charged with orchestrating a $6.5 million offering fraud.
In May 2015, the SEC charged Robert DePalo with defrauding over twenty investors by misrepresenting the value of their investments and use of their funds, including by sending the first $2.3 million of investor funds to his personal bank account. The SEC also alleged that Robert DePalo made false statements to SEC examiners in an attempt to conceal the fraud. Read More
SEC Charges College Official for Fraudulently Concealing Financial Troubles from Investors
On March 28, 2019, the SEC charged Keith Borge, the former controller of a New York-based not-for-profit college with defrauding municipal securities investors by fraudulently concealing the college’s deteriorating finances.
According to the SEC’s complaint, in recent years, the College of New Rochelle came under considerable financial stress because of declining student enrollment and plummeting revenue from tuition. To hide the college’s deteriorating financial condition from investors, the college’s former controller, Keith Borge, created false financial records, didn’t file payroll tax submissions, and didn’t assess the collectability of pledged donations that were increasingly unlikely to be received as donors became more frustrated with the college’s operations. Keith Borge’s misconduct resulted in the college’s financial statements for its 2015 fiscal year falsely overstating net assets by almost $34 million. Keith Borge also falsely certified the accuracy of the college’s financial statements. The financial statements were published by Keith Borge to an online repository in connection with the College’s continuing disclosure obligations stemming from a 1999 bond issuance, and significantly influenced investors’ decisions to invest in the bonds. Read More
SEC Shuts Down Fraudulent Investment Advisor Who Was Targeting the Israeli-American Community
The SE announced on April 1, 2019 that it had halted an ongoing investment fraud by Investment Advisor Motty Mizrahi targeting members of the Jewish community, primarily in the Los Angeles, California region.
The SEC filed an emergency action in federal court against Motty Mizrahi and MBIG Company, his sole proprietorship, alleging that, since June 2012, they defrauded at least 15 advisory clients out of more than $3 million. According to the SEC’s complaint, unsealed on March 29, 2019, Motty Mizrahi falsely claimed that MBIG used sophisticated trading strategies to generate “guaranteed” returns of between 2-3% per month, the investments were risk-free, and clients would not lose their money and could withdraw their funds at any time. Unbeknownst to his clients, however, MBIG had no bank or brokerage account of its own – rather, clients unwittingly sent money to Motty Mizrahi’s personal bank account. Motty Mizrahi used the money to fund his personal brokerage account, in which he engaged in high-risk options trading producing losses of more than $2.2 million, and to pay personal expenses. The SEC alleges that Motty Mizrahi covered up his fraud by issuing MBIG’s clients fabricated account statements, showing positive account balances and profits from trading. When clients demanded proof of MBIG’s securities holdings, Motty Mizrahi showed them brokerage statements reflecting a multi-million dollar balance for a fictitious MBIG brokerage account. Read More
SEC Charges Investment Adviser with Long-Running Securities Fraud
On March 22, 2019, the SEC charged registered investment adviser Direct Lending Investments, LLC with a multi-year fraud that resulted in approximately $11 million in over-charges of management and performance fees to its private funds, as well as the inflation of the private funds’ returns.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Direct Lending advises a combination of private funds that invest in various lending platforms, including QuarterSpot, Inc., an online small business lender. The SEC alleges that for years, Brendan Ross, Direct Lending Investments’s owner and then-chief executive officer, arranged with QuarterSpot to falsify borrower payment information for QuarterSpot’s loans and to falsely report to Direct Lending that borrowers made hundreds of monthly payments when, in fact, they had not. The SEC alleges that many of these loans should have been valued at zero, but instead were improperly valued at their full value, because of the false payments Ross helped engineer. As a result, between 2014 and 2017, Direct Lending cumulatively overstated the valuation of its QuarterSpot position by approximately $53 million and misrepresented the Funds’ performance by approximately two to three percent annually. The SEC alleges that Direct Lending collected approximately $11 million in excess management and performance fees from the Funds that it would not have otherwise collected, had the QuarterSpot position been accurately valued. Read More
SEC Charges Reverse Merger Shell Brokers, Tiber Creek and James Cassidy
On March 26, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced settled actions against Reverse Merger Shell Brokers, James K. McKillop, attorney James M. Cassidy, and Cassidy’s firm Tiber Creek Corp. The agency accused both men of acting as unregistered brokers and of failing to file required beneficial ownership forms with Edgar. While that may sound dull, the case is of interest for several reasons, and in addition illustrates why going public via a reverse merger can turn out to be a poor idea.
We’ve written often about dormant shells and the people who sell them to unwary owners of private companies who want to go public. Usually the shell vendors we’ve discussed obtain their inventory by petitioning for custodianship of the shell companies they wished to control. Once custodianship is granted, the custodian is free to inform the transfer agent that he’s in charge. He can issue himself stock, or a promissory note that converts to stock. If the shell company is a delinquent SEC registrant, he can terminate registration. But his main goal is to sell the shell to someone who wants to take his own company public. Shell vendors always claim their shells are “clean,” but there’s no guarantee of that. Buyers may discover too late that their new shell has a closet full of skeletons, in the form of a bad history, bad share structure with a series of reverse splits, or toxic and potentially dilutive promissory notes. If such issues exist, the only way to resolve them is through litigation, which can be expensive and time-consuming.
SEC Settles with James K. McKillop, Unregistered Public Shell Company Broker
On March 26, 2019 the SEC filed settled charges against recidivist James K. McKillop for acting as an unregistered broker and for failing to timely file required beneficial ownership forms in connection with his position at Tiber Creek Corp. The SEC also separately filed related settled administrative charges against Tiber Creek and Tiber Creek’s president, James M. Cassidy.
According to the SEC’s complaint and the SEC’s order, Tiber Creek maintained an inventory of SEC-registered public shell companies, for which James McKillop and James Cassidy served as the officers, directors, and fifty percent shareholders. The SEC alleges that since July 2012, James McKillop and James Cassidy effected securities transactions through Tiber Creek for more than 100 public shell companies without being registered as brokers. The complaint also alleges that on more than 110 occasions, James McKillop and James Cassidy failed to timely file required beneficial ownership reports, including Schedules 13G and Forms 4, in connection with the public shell companies. Read More
SEC Speaks Reverse Mergers – Going Public
On March 8, 2019, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton and Brett Redfearn, Director of the agency’s Division of Trading and Markets, spoke at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business in New York City. They addressed a variety of topics, but a few points of interest stood out including their discussion of reverse mergers in going public transactions. One was the need to do more to combat retail investor fraud. That had been the subject of a lively roundtable discussion that took place at SEC headquarters in Washington on September 26, 2018. Clayton and Redfearn wanted to discuss the conclusions drawn from that and two other roundtables convened in 2018, and to suggest new directions, along with some plans for reform, for 2019.
Clayton stressed, as he had at the roundtable, his fidelity to five principles that serve as his guide. They are: Read More
Former COO Fraudulently Caused Advisory Firm to Overbill Clients
The SEC filed on March 28, 2019 charges against the former Chief Operating Officer (COO), Richard Diver of a Commission-registered investment adviser for aiding and abetting the advisory firm’s actions to overbill its clients as part of a fraudulent scheme to improperly inflate his own pay.
According to the SEC’s complaint, between 2011 and December 2018, former COO Richard Diver, a resident of Spring Lake, New Jersey, engaged in an illicit scheme to steal approximately $6 million from his employer. Richard Diver, whose duties included managing the advisory firm’s payroll and client billing functions, allegedly inflated his salary by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. As part of this scheme, Richard Diver defrauded investors by causing the investment adviser to overbill more than 300 investment advisory client accounts by approximately $750,000, for the purpose of generating additional revenue. As alleged in the complaint, Richard Diver used this revenue to finance his inflated salary and when confronted by the investment adviser’s CEO in December 2018, Richard Diver confessed to having carried out the scheme. Read More
SEC Halts Ponzi Scheme Targeting Vietnamese Investors
The SEC announced fraud charges and an asset freeze on March 18, 2019, against the operators of a $25 million Ponzi scheme falsely promising high annual returns with minimal to no risk to investors in the Vietnamese community of Orange County, California.
The SEC alleges that Kent R.E. Whitney founded The Church for the Healthy Self three months after being released from federal prison for orchestrating a prior investment scheme involving commodities. According to the SEC, the Church for the Healthy Self’s investment program, CHS Trust, promised investors tax-deductible, guaranteed, and insured returns of at least 12%, through reinsurance investments and options trading. Read More
What is a NYSE Control Company Anyway? NYSE Attorneys
Public Companies that qualify as a “Controlled Company” with securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (NASDAQ) or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), must comply with the exchange’s continued listing standards to maintain their listings. NASDAQ and the NYSE have adopted qualitative listing standards. Companies that do not comply with these corporate governance requirements may lose their listing status.
Under NASDAQ and NYSE rules a “controlled company” is a company with more than 50% of its voting power held by a single person, entity or group. Under NYSE and NASDAQ rules, a controlled company is exempt from certain corporate governance requirements including:
- the requirement that a majority of the board of directors consist of independent directors;
- the requirement that a listed company have a nominating and governance committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities;
- the requirement that a listed company have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors with a written charter addressing the committee’s purpose and responsibilities;
- the requirement for an annual performance evaluation of the nominating and governance committee and compensation committee.
SEC Obtains Final Judgments Against Investment Adviser, Goldsky Asset Management
On January 2, 2019, a federal district court entered final consent judgments against an Australia-based investment adviser, Goldsky Asset Management, LLC, and its owner, Kenneth Grace, for making false and misleading statements about its business in filings with the Commission and on its website.
The SEC’s complaint, filed on September 27, 2018 in the Southern District of New York, alleged that Goldsky Asset Management’s Forms ADV for 2016 and 2017, which Grace signed, falsely stated that Goldsky Asset Management’s hedge fund, Goldsky Global Alpha Fund, LP, had an auditor, a prime broker and custodian, and an administrator. The complaint further alleged that, in its Forms ADV and ADV Part 2A, Goldsky Asset Management stated that it managed over $100 million in discretionary assets under management, when it in fact had no assets. According to the complaint, Goldsky Asset Management’s website falsely claimed that Goldsky Global Alpha Fund earned 19.45% compounded annual returns since inception, 70.33% compounded monthly returns since inception, and 25.30% returns for the year ended September 30, 2017. Read More
The Bad Actor Rule of Rule 506(d) – Securities Lawyer 101
According to a recent Securities & Exchange Commission (“SEC”) report, thousands of businesses raise billions of dollars in capital through offerings exempt from registration under Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Rule 506 is the most commonly used Regulation D exemption. For small issuers, the amount raised is typically less than $2 million.
Rule 506(c) allows for general solicitation of accredited investors. This rule, a product of the JOBS Act, became effective on September 23, 2013 and is the original source of the “Bad Actor Rule.” The Bad Actor Rule prohibits an issuer from relying on the exemption if the issuer or certain other persons are subject to certain “Disqualifying Events” including being convicted of, or being subject to judicial or regulatory sanctions for, certain violations of U.S. based laws.
The Bad Actor Rule Codified
The “Bad Actor” rule is codified in paragraphs (d) and (e) of Rule 506. Rule 506(d)(1) states that the exemptions in Rule 506(b) and Rule 506(c) are not available if a covered person has had certain Disqualifying Events. Read More
SEC Charges Texas Radio Host for Ponzi Scheme Targeting Elderly Investors
The SEC announced on March 12, 2019 that it has charged Texas resident William Neil “Doc” Gallagher-the self-styled “Money Doctor” featured on three Dallas-area radio stations-in an emergency action to shut down a $19.6 million Ponzi scheme targeting elderly investors’ retirement funds. The SEC also charged Gallagher Financial Group, Inc. and W. Neil Gallagher, Ph.D. Agency, Inc., companies that Gallagher used to carry out the scheme.
The SEC’s complaint, which was filed under seal on March 7, 2019, alleged that Gallagher made frequent religious references on his radio shows to establish his standing among a target audience of retired Christian investors. From December 2014 through January 2019, he raised at least $19.6 million from approximately 60 senior citizens. Falsely claiming to be a licensed investment adviser, he offered an investment that he called a Diversified Growth and Income Strategy Account, in which he promised to acquire income-generating assets for his clients in five specified categories. He promised investors that they would receive guaranteed, risk-free returns in their accounts ranging from 5% to 8% per year. In reality, except for one $75,000 annuity purchase, Gallagher purchased no assets in any of the five categories and no other assets to back the promised returns. Instead, he exhausted virtually all investor funds on spending unrelated to the accounts, including misappropriating significant portions for personal and company expenses and to make Ponzi payments to investors. To lull investors and conceal the scheme, Gallagher provided investors phony account statements showing false account balances. Read More
Do State Blue Sky Laws Apply To Rule 506(c) Offerings? Going Public Lawyers
Issuers are often unaware of the state laws that apply to their private placements prior to completion of their going public transactions. Federal securities laws require that the purchase or sale of a security be subject to a registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) or exemptfrom registration. Rule 506 of Regulation D under the Securities Act provides an exemption for private placement offerings. The JOBS Act amended Rule 506 by creating Rule 506(c) which allows general solicitation and advertising in private placement offerings so long as sales are made only to accredited investors.
Issuers conducting any offer or sale of securities must consider state blue sky laws that may be relevant to their offering. Securities offerings under Rule 506 are deemed to be covered securities under the federal law, which preempts the states from substantively regulating Rule 506 offerings under state securities or blue sky laws. Read More
SEC Settles with Joseph Frank Vacante, Biotech Insider Trader
The SEC charged on February 21, 2019, Joseph Frank Vacante, a former employee of a biotech company with insider trading on confidential information regarding the company’s withdrawal of certain products from consideration by the U.S. FDA.
Joseph Frank Vacante agreed to pay more than $140,000 to settle the SEC’s charges.
According to the SEC’s complaint, on September 29, 2016, Joseph Frank Vacante learned that the FDA had recommended that Trinity withdraw two products which Joseph Frank Vacante believed represented the future of the company. The complaint further alleges that, that same day, Joseph Frank Vacante twice communicated with his broker in efforts to sell Trinity American Depository Receipts (ADRs) which he had received as part of his employment, including lowering the price to ensure the sale occurred. Read More
SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Joseph Frank Vacante, Former Broker for Defrauding Customers
On March 1, 2019, a federal district court entered a final consent judgment against broker, William Gennity who was charged with defrauding customers by making unsuitable and unauthorized trades and churning customers’ accounts that enriched the broker at the customers’ expense.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that from July 2012 to August 2014, William Gennity recommended to four customers a pattern of high-cost, in-and-out trading without any reasonable basis to believe that his customers could make a profit. William Gennity’s recommendations resulted in losses for the customers and gains for William Gennity. He allegedly also lied to his customers about the potential for the accounts to profit. The complaint also alleges that William Gennity engaged in unauthorized trading and churning. Read More
SEC Announces Settlement Against Former Investment Adviser, James Polese
On February 22,2019 the SEC announced the entry of a final judgment against James Polese, a former investment adviser at a large financial institution who was charged with misappropriating client funds.
On January 31, 2018, the Commission filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts charging James Polese and his former colleague, Cornelius Peterson, with securities fraud for engaging in various schemes to defraud their clients, including fraudulently misappropriating $350,000 of one client’s money, using $100,000 of those funds to make investments in their own names, and directing the remaining $250,000 to James Polese’s personal bank account. The Commission’s complaint also alleged that James Polese and Cornelius Peterson invested $100,000 of another client’s funds into an investment in which Cornelius Peterson and James Polese held a financial interest, without informing the client or disclosing their conflict of interest. Read More
SEC Obtains Final Judgments Against Mathias Francisco Sandoval and Maria Cidre, Former General Cable Corp, CEO and Former CFO of General Cable Corp.
On February 20, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered final judgments on consent against Mathias Francisco Sandoval Herrera and Maria D. Cidre, the former Chief Executive Officer and former Chief Financial Officer, respectively, of the Rest of World operating segment of General Cable Corp.
The SEC’s complaint, filed on January 24, 2017, alleged that Mathias Francisco Sandoval and Maria Cidre learned in January 2012 of an inventory overstatement and related accounting errors at General Cable’s subsidiary in Brazil. The complaint alleged that, over the course of 2012, the estimated overstatement grew to tens of millions of dollars. Instead of disclosing the overstatement pursuant to General Cable’s policies and system of internal controls, the complaint alleges that Mathias Francisco Sandoval and Maria Cidre concealed the errors by omitting them from required reports and making false certifications to executive management. Read More
Restricted Legends, Removal Requirements, Rule 144 for Shells – Tradability Legal Opinions
The Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) does not require that issuers place restricted legend (“Restricted Legends” or “Restrictive Legend“) on certificates representing restricted securities. It has become routine for public companies and private companies seeking to go public to place Restricted Legends on certificates. It is also common practice for an issuer’s transfer agent to require that the issuer place Restricted Legends on stock certificates representing restricted securities. Restricted Legends provide notice to shareholders as well as to third parties that the securities represented by the stock certificate cannot be resold unless registered under the Securities Act or an exemption from registration is available. To remove the restricted legend, the issuer and/or its transfer agent will require a tradability legal opinion.
Rule 163B and Testing the Waters
On February 19, 2019, the SEC posted a new proposed rule intended to make it possible for all issuers to “test the waters” when contemplating a public offering of securities. Until now, only issuers considered emerging growth companies (EGCs) under the JOBS Act of 2012 qualified to solicit investor interest prior to a registered public offering. An EGC is defined as an issuer with “total annual gross revenues of less than $1.07 billion during its most recently completed fiscal year and, as of December 8, 2011, had not sold common equity securities under a registration statement”. A company continues to be an emerging growth company for the first five years after it completes an Initial Public Offering (“IPO”). Its status will change only if its gross revenues exceed the $1.07 billion threshold, if it has issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt, or it becomes a large accelerated filer.
In addition being allowed to test the waters—with the object of gauging investor interest in an initial public offering (IPO)—the JOBS Act conferred other advantages on EGCs, most of them having to do with less stringent SEC Reporting Requirements in quarterly and annual reports. Another benefit enjoyed by these fledgling companies was the ability to file draft registration statements with the SEC confidentially. When an EGC files a confidential initial registration statement, the filing itself is not made available to the public, and the review process is between the company and the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. The original submission and subsequent amendments need not be made public until 15 days prior to the start of the company’s road show. Read More
SEC Files Charges against Joshua Sason in Elaborate Microcap Stock Fraud
On February 15, 2019 the SEC announced charges against four individuals and related businesses for their roles in two microcap frauds and unlawful securities offerings. In sum, the alleged illegal transactions resulted in proceeds of more than $25 million.
According to the SEC’s complaint, from approximately December 2012 to June 2013, microcap stock financier Magna Group, which was founded and owned by Joshua Sason, engaged in a scheme to acquire fake convertible promissory notes supposedly issued by penny stock issuer Lustros Inc. and then to convert those notes into shares of Lustros common stock. The defendants then sold the shares to unsuspecting retail investors, who did not know that the shares were fraudulently acquired and were being sold illegally. The defendants’ sales of the Lustros shares also had the effect of destroying the value of the Lustros shares held by the public. The complaint alleges that Marc Manuel, Magna Group’s former head of research and due diligence, personally negotiated and executed the sham transactions. Read More
SEC Charges Cognizant and Two Former Executives With FCPA Violations
On February 15, 2019, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and two of the company’s former executives were charged for their roles in facilitating the payment of millions of dollars in a bribe to an Indian government official.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that in 2014, a senior government official of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded a $2 million bribe from the construction firm responsible for building Cognizant’s 2.7 million square foot campus in Chennai, India. As alleged in the complaint, Gordon Coburn, Cognizant’s President, and Steven E. Schwartz, the company’s Chief Legal Officer, authorized the contractor to pay the bribe, and directed their subordinates to conceal the bribe by doctoring the contractor’s change orders. The Commission also alleges that Cognizant authorized the construction firm to make two additional bribes totaling more than $1.6 million. Cognizant allegedly used sham change order requests to conceal the payments it made to reimburse the firm. Read More
Can Finders Raise Money Q & A – Going Public Lawyers
Posted By Brenda Hamilton, Securities Lawyer
It is not unusual for a private or public company to be approached by a person (“Finder”) who offers to locate investors in exchange for a success fee. Most finders are not registered as broker-dealers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) or Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”). The possibility of receiving capital, even through the efforts of a Finder creates a tempting opportunity for issuers going public in need of capital. Matching companies with investors can be a lucrative proposition for the Finder. While it may seem harmless, the SEC does not think so and in fact, the SEC frequently brings cases against unregistered Finders and those who aid and abet them. This Q & A addresses common questions we receive from our clients about Finders. Read More
SEC Charges Former Executives of Lucent Polymers, a Plastics Manufacturer with Fraud
On February 12, 2019, the SEC charged two former high-ranking executives, of an Indiana-based plastics manufacturer with concealing from potential buyers of the manufacturer the fact that the company’s core business model was a sham.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Lucent Polymers, Inc. premised its business model on its ability to transform “garbage to gold” – that is, to use low-grade, non-prime feedstock to develop high-quality plastics. The company’s near-magic “garbage to gold” process, the SEC alleges, was a huge commercial success. However, the complaint alleges that Lucent’s business model was a fraud. The complaint alleges that the company routinely lied to its customers and falsified its certifications of test data to show that its products complied with customer specifications, including on important aspects such as fire-retardant measures, when in fact the products did not meet customer specifications. Read More
Court Imposes Lifetime Officer-And-Director Bars On Michael J. Kipp, Swisher’s former CFO, and Joanne K. Viard
A federal district court has permanently barred two former corporate officers of a North Carolina-based hygiene and sanitation company from serving as officers or directors of public companies.
The SEC charged the two officers of Swisher Hygiene, Inc., Michael J. Kipp, Swisher’s former CFO, and Joanne K. Viard, Swisher’s former Director of External Reporting, in 2016 with fraud for participating in an earnings management scheme.
The SEC’s complaint alleged that, during the second through fourth quarters of 2011, Michael Kipp took advantage of Swisher’s ineffective internal controls and directed his accounting group to change various acquisition-related reserves and expenses to increase earnings to predetermined targets. The complaint alleged that Joanne Viard identified potential acquisition-related entries that could be reclassified to meet earnings targets, and made various adjusting entries in Swisher’s accounting records without adequate justification or support. In a parallel action, Michael Kipp and Joanne Viard were charged criminally and were sentenced to 54 and 24 months imprisonment, respectively. Read More
