Constellation Healthcare Technologies Executives Charged with Fraud

On May 16th, 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charged three former executives for Constellation Healthcare Technologies Inc. (Constellation), a Houston- based company, who falsified financial and other information they provided to a private firm while negotiating… Read More

Shane Fleming Charged with Insider Trading

On September 29, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Shane Fleming, a middleman tipper, and six traders with insider trading ahead of the announcement that the company would be purchased and taken private. In a complaint filed… Read More

Court Grants Summary Judgment Motion against Iftikar Ahmed

On March 29, 2018, a federal district court in Connecticut granted the SEC’s motion for summary judgment as to the liability of Iftikar Ahmed alleged to have fraudulently diverted money from the venture capital funds he advised. The… Read More

Electronic Transaction Clearing -ETC- Charged With Repeatedly Putting Customer Assets At Risk

On March 19th the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Electronic Transaction Clearing (ETC), a registered broker-dealer headquartered in Los Angeles, has agreed to settle charges that it illegally placed more than $25 million of customers’ securities at risk… Read More

Foreign Affiliates of KPMG, Deloitte, BDO Charged in Improper Audits

On March 13th the Securities and Exchange Commission charged foreign affiliates of KPMG, Deloitte & Touche, and BDO for their involvement in audit work that circumvented the full oversight of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The… Read More

Former Equifax Executive, Jun Ying Charged With Insider Trading

On March 14th the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Jun Ying, a former chief information officer of a U.S. business unit of Equifax with insider trading in advance of the company’s September 2017 announcement about a massive data… Read More

Woodbridge Ordered to Produce Corporate Documents

On September 21, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) obtained an order requiring the Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC, of Sherman Oaks, California, to produce the corporate documents of several company executives and employees, including the President and CEO…. Read More

Mayank Gupta Settles Insider Trading Charges

On September 13, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Mayank Gupta, a former auditor, has agreed to settle charges that he tipped his relative with inside information about a client on the verge of a… Read More

Vergeous LLC, et al. Charged with Offering Fraud

On August 16, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Vergeous LLC and Dream Team Partners LLC, two Florida-based video game development companies, and their principal have agreed to pay approximately $293,000 for misleading investors in video game… Read More

Michael Trahan Charged for Insider Trading

On June 7, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced fraud charges against Michael Trahan for insider trading in the securities of The Shaw Group, Inc. (Shaw), a Louisiana-based energy construction company, ahead of a public announcement that… Read More

Final Judgement on Former InterMune Director and Friend

On June 30, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that the Honorable Jacqueline Scott Corley, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California, entered a final judgment as to Sasan Sabrdaran, the former director of drug… Read More

Lawson Financial Corporation Settles Fraud Charges

On April 5, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Lawson Financial Corporation, an Arizona-based brokerage firm, its CEO, and its former underwriter’s counsel have agreed to settle charges related to municipal bond offerings they were underwriting… Read More

Desarrolladora Homex Settle Fraud Charges

On March 3, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Mexico-based homebuilding company Desarrolladora Homex S.A.B. de C.V. has agreed to settle charges that it reported fake sales of more than 100,000 homes to boost revenues in… Read More

Axesstel Fails to Comply with Exchange Act

On April 24, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) deemed it necessary and appropriate for the protection of investors that public administrative proceedings be, and hereby are, instituted pursuant to Section 12(j) of the Securities Exchange Act… Read More

Jay Hatton Submits Offer of Settlement

Jay Hatton (CRD #1725472, Edinburgh, Indiana) submitted an Offer of Settlement in which he was assessed a deferred fine of $10,000 and suspended from association with any FINRA member in any capacity for two years. Without admitting or… Read More

FBI Informant Guy Gentile’s Indictment Is Tossed by the Judge

Guy Gentile Gets Good News On January 30, 2017, brokerage firm owner Guy Gentile got the good news he’d been hoping for:  Judge Jose Linares of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey had… Read More

Final Judgment Entered Against Gregg Mulholland Posted by Brenda Hamilton

On January 11, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against defendant Gregg R. Mulholland, a penny stock promoter charged in an SEC action with illegally selling more than… Read More

General Cable Corporation Settles FCPA Charges – Posted by Brenda Hamilton

Posted by Brenda Hamilton One December 29, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Kentucky-based General Cable Corporation agreed to pay more than $75 million to resolve parallel SEC and U.S. Department of Justice investigations related to its violations… Read More

Stanley Fortenberry Pleads Guilty to $900,000 Fraud

On November 18, 2016, Stanley Jonathan Fortenberry (a/k/a S.J., John, or Johnny Fortenberry) of San Angelo, Texas, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with obstruction of justice and other charges in connection with two investment companies he ran that… Read More

Lime Energy Co. and Four Execs Charged with Accounting Fraud

On October 17, 2016 the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charged Lime Energy Co., an energy services provider and four of its executives for their roles in an accounting fraud in which the company recognized revenue earlier than allowed… Read More

Robert Gadimian Charged with Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) today charged the former senior director of regulatory affairs for Puma Biotechnology with insider trading ahead of the company’s news announcements about a drug to treat breast cancer. The SEC alleges that… Read More

RPM International Charged with Disclosure and Accounting Failures

On September 9, 2016 the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) charged Ohio-based chemical company RPM International Inc. and its General Counsel, Edward Moore, with failing to disclose a material loss contingency, or record an accrual for, a government… Read More

Guy Gentile Says FBI Double-Crossed Him

Stockbroker Guy Gentile was flying high as 2012 began.  In January, he gave an interview to the Nassau Guardian in which he predicted wild success for his new Bahamas brokerage, SureTrader, a division of Swiss America Securities, Ltd.,… Read More

Court Enters Final Judgment Against Jilbert Tahmazian in an Antifraud Action

On August 26, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a final judgment against Jilbert Tahmazian, an attorney licensed in California, ordering him to pay $196,524 to settle an antifraud action filed by… Read More

Operation Bermuda Short In Retrospect

Many penny stocks have bad histories, or are associated with questionable players.  Only last December, convicted felon Edward Durante was civilly and criminally charged in a securities fraud and manipulation scheme he’d embarked upon immediately after leaving prison… Read More

Daniel and Matthew Rivera Charged for Running a Ponzi Scheme Directed at Seniors

  On March 24, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged two brothers, and a company that they founded purportedly to develop and sell real estate, with engaging in a $2.7 million Ponzi scheme that targeted approximately 30,… Read More

California Businessman Daniel Nase Stole Investor Funds and Tried to Conceal It

  On March 11, 2016 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced fraud charges against California businessman Daniel Nase, accusing him of stealing investor assets and then trying to cover it up once the SEC caught onto his… Read More

Court Denies Motion to Reconsider Summary Judgment Against June Fujinaga

On March 4, 2016, the Honorable James C. Mahan, United States District Judge for the District of Nevada, entered an order denying a motion for reconsideration of the final judgment filed by relief defendants June Fujinaga and her… Read More

Court Approves Summary Judgment Against Stewart Merkin

On January 13, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed entry of summary judgment in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on its claims of securities fraud against defendant Stewart Merkin… Read More

Cry Me a Sater…Felix Sater & Donald Trump

  In February 2015, Felix Sater proudly announced the debut of a new website.  As he puts it, it “showcases [his] accomplishments, contributions, musings, and availability.”  Though Sater describes himself as a veteran of the commercial real estate… Read More