Another whistleblower received over $3 million for providing the regulator information which started an investigation. The individual was an insider who initially reported their concerns internally. Later they submitted a detailed tip and met with the SEC’s Enforcement staff a few times to provide additional information in the course of the investigation. Creola Kelly, Chief…
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Osman Nawaz, Chief of the Division of Enforcement’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit Advisory firms are obligated to implement appropriate policies and procedures to ensure all parties involved in the sale of complex financial products and strategies have a clear understanding of the risks those products present. As fiduciaries, advisers also must make suitable recommendations to…
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Further, EY admits that during the Enforcement Division’s investigation into the firm, it stated that the firm had no current issues with cheating when, in fact, it had been informed of possible cheating on a CPA ethics exam. Moreover, EY did not correct its stance after it conducted an internal investigation and confirmed that cheating…
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SEC also stated that EIA and Middlebrooks misused new investor money in a Ponzi-like manner. They made payments to other investors in the fund in order to continue the deception that the fund was profitable. The US watchdog alleges that Middlebrooks also misappropriated investor funds for personal use, including for jewelry and credit card payments.…
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Sanjay Wadhwa, Deputy Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and head of its Climate and ESG Task Force, said: Registered investment advisers and funds are increasingly offering and evaluating investments that employ ESG strategies or incorporate certain ESG criteria, in part to meet investor demand for such strategies and investments. Here, we allege that…
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The unit was created in 2017 and since then it has brought over 80 enforcement actions in cases related to fraudulent and unregistered crypto asset offerings and platforms, and has brought monetary relief of over $2 billion. The expanded Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit will use SEC’s expertise to protect investors in the crypto market.…
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The scheme According to the CFTC, Yang and her companies ran the trading scheme between April 2017 and March 2020. The defendants solicited investors and raised funds for the purported purpose of forex trading. The regulator alleges that the defendants made several false representations to the existing and potential pool participants of the scheme. They…
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Furthermore, the Commission alleged that defendants were paid $10 million for promoting thinly traded stocks, which they misled investors to believe had high prospects for success. Paul Levenson, Director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office, said: These scam artists went to great lengths – using bogus companies, aliases, and spoofing their phone numbers – to…
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SEC pointed out that Collins approved of AVG employees using the “industry standard ‘2 and 20’” language. He personally used the same language with fund investors. SEC also found that AVG made inter-fund loans and cash transfers between funds and made loans to certain funds which is in violation of the funds’ respective operating agreements.…
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Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office, commented: As a financial advisor, Nino was entrusted with millions of dollars belonging to his client. As alleged in our complaint, Nino took advantage of that trust by abusing his access to his client’s accounts for personal gain. The financial markets regulator explained that Nino…
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