Archive

June 13, 2022

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Charles Schwab Investment Advisory, Inc., and Schwab Wealth Investment Advisory, Inc. will pay $187 million for violating the antifraud provisions of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Mandated disclosures for Schwab Intelligent Portfolios—Schwab’s robo-adviser product—stated that the amount of cash in the robo-adviser portfolios utilized a “disciplined portfolio construction methodology,” and would seek “optimal return[s].” Instead, Schwab swept cash from the robo-adviser portfolios to its affiliate bank, loaned it out, and kept the difference between the interest it earned on the loans and the interest it paid to the robo-adviser clients. This resulted in customers making less money while taking on the same amount of risk. SEC

June 8, 2022

CohnReznick LLP and its partners Stephen M. Wyss, Stephen H. Jackson, and Robert G. Hilbert were charged with improper professional conduct in their engagement with clients Sequential Brands Group, Inc. and Longfin Corp, violations of Rule 102(e) of the SEC’s Rules of Practice, Rule 2-02(b)(1) of Regulation S-X, and violations of Section 13(a) of the SEC Act of 1934. CohnReznick failed to obtain sufficient evidence to support Sequential’s conclusion that its goodwill was not impaired or reduced in value, despite the firm’s own valuation specialists expressing concern. In its Longfin audit, CohnReznick failed to address known issues involving related party transactions used to fraudulently inflate Longfin’s revenues. CohnReznick’s $1.9 million penalty will be returned to investors. SEC

June 8, 2022

Michael Gastauer, of Germany, and his 6 related entities will pay over $15 million for aiding and abetting an international securities scheme wherein Gastauer used his U.S. bank accounts to disburse illegal stock sale proceeds to offshore brokerage accounts, masking the sellers’ true identities. The scheme was orchestrated by UK citizen Roger Knox and his Swiss-owned entity, Wintercap SA. In a parallel criminal action, Knox was indicted on and pled guilty to one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Knox’s sentencing is pending. SEC

June 7, 2022

Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC will pay a civil monetary penalty of $1,150,000 for disclosure and internal controls violations related to rating commercial mortgage-backed securities. Analysts were permitted to adjust key stresses in the rating model, without disclosing they had done so, impacting 30 transactions from 2015 to 2016. Additionally, effective internal controls were neither established nor enforced for these adjustments from 2015 to 2017, impacting 31 transactions. SEC

June 7, 2022

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. and seven senior employees were charged with accounting improprieties running from 2013 to 2017, including improperly accounting for numerous transactions, filing with the SEC materially misleading financial statements, and having material weaknesses in its internal financial reporting controls. Synchronoss will pay a civil penalty of $12.5 million. SEC

June 2, 2022

Luxembourg-based steel pipe manufacturer Tenaris will pay more than $78 million to resolve claims that between 2008 and 2013 its Brazilian subsidiary paid bribes to obtain and retain business from the Brazil state-owned entity Petrobras.  The SEC alleged that Tenaris violated the anti-bribery, books and records, and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  SEC

May 31, 2022

Healthcare company SCWorx Corp. has agreed to resolve SEC charges that it made false and misleading statements in an April, 2020 press release, claiming in a press release that it had received a purchase order for millions of COVID-19 rapid test kits.  The announcement caused the company’s stock price to surge, but the SEC alleged that the company had neither a legitimate supplier of COVID-19 test kits nor an executed purchase agreement with a buyer.  When the true facts became public, investors lost at least $116 million.  The company has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $125,000 and contribute stock valued at $600,000 as disgorgement and prejudgment interest to harmed investors in a private class action.  The company’s former CEO, Marc Schessel, has been indicted for securities fraud with respect to the scheme.  SEC; USAO NJ

May 25, 2022

RiverSource Distributors Inc. will pay a $5 million civil penalty for violating Section 11 of the Investment Company Act by employing sales practices wherein variable-annuities-holding customers were unknowingly switched from one variable annuity to another, increasing sales commissions for employees and boosting RiverSource’s revenues. These trades were effectuated through Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, an affiliated broker-dealer/investment adviser. RiverSource’s compliance department caused the sales practice to stop in 2018, but only after these types of transactions saw a significant increase from 2016 until then. RiverSource was also hit with a cease-and-desist order and a censure, in addition to the civil penalty.  SEC

May 25, 2022

Twitter will pay $150 million in civil penalties and implement new compliance measures to settle allegations of FTC Act violations by misrepresenting how it would deploy users’ nonpublic contact information, affecting more than 140 million Twitter users. From 2013 to 2019, Twitter collected users’ telephone numbers and email addresses under the guise of account security protocols, while concealing their secondary use of this information to help companies send targeted ads to consumers, which thereby increased Twitter’s primary source of revenue. In addition to the monetary penalty, Twitter is required to implement a new privacy and information security program and comply with numerous other reporting and record-keeping requirements. DOJ, USAO NDCA

May 24, 2022

Switzerland-based mining and commodity trading firm Glencore International A.G. and an affiliate have agreed to pay over $1.1 billion in criminal penalties and forfeitures, and will plead guilty to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and conspiracy to engage in commodity price manipulation.  In addition, the companies will pay over $1.186 billion in civil penalties and disgorgement in settlement with the CFTC.  As part of the criminal plea agreement, Glencore admitted that between 2007 and 2018, it corruptly provided more than $100 million in payments and other things of value to intermediaries for the payment of bribes to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  With respect to the commodity price manipulation scheme, the CFTC found that from as early as 2007 through at least 2018, Glencore sought to increase profits from its physical and derivatives oil products trading by manipulating or attempting to manipulate four U.S. based S&P Global Platts physical oil benchmarks and related futures and swaps.  Criminal fines and forfeitures total over $700 million for the FCPA violations and nearly $486 million for the for the market manipulation violations, which amounts are subject to credits for amounts paid to the CFTC and foreign authorities including the United Kingdom.  The $1.186 billion CFTC resolution will also be reduced, with Glencore receiving credit for payments in the criminal resolutions.  DOJ; USAO SDNY; CFTC