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February 7, 2023

Saivian LLC and owner EJ Dalius have agreed to pay $24 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and penalties for operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi and pyramid scheme.  According to the SEC, Savian and Dalius promised investors 20% cash back on retail shopping purchases as long as they paid a $125 fee every 28 days and submitted receipts for their purchases.  Savian and Dalius claimed the cash back payments were funded by monetizing receipt data, when in fact, it was funded by payments from prior investors.  In addition to the Ponzi scheme, Savian and Dalius also ran a pyramid scheme wherein affiliates sold memberships to others down the line.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Ponzi Schemes,

February 3, 2023

Video game company Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges that alleged it failed to implement controls to collect and review internal complaints about workplace misconduct.  The company also violated a whistleblower protection rule by requiring former employees to provide notice if they received information requests from the SEC.  SEC

Tagged in: SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Protection Laws,

January 24, 2023

A former energy company executive accused of defrauding investors of more than $15 million and misappropriating investor funds has been sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud.  While serving as the executive chairman and managing partner of Citadel Energy, which supposedly helped oil and gas companies with fluid management, Joey Stanton Dodson made false and misleading representations and omissions to investors concerning the intended use of their funds and his own compensation.  After obtaining over $15.6 million from over 50 investors, Dodson misappropriated $1.3 million into his own accounts, and used some of it to repay investors of unrelated entities.  DOJ

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations, Ponzi Schemes,

January 23, 2023

Charlie Abujudeh of California has been ordered to pay over $5 million for his role in defrauding retail investors through a microcap fraud scheme.  Abujudeh and associates allegedly made misleading statements during high pressure sales calls and email promotions to urge investors to invest in Odyssey Group International, Inc., Scepter Holdings, Inc., and CannaPharmaRx, Inc., then gave hundreds of thousands of investor funds to a contact within Odyssey.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud,

January 19, 2023

Cryptocurrency company Nexo Capital Inc. has agreed to pay $22.5 million and comply with a cease and desist order in order to settle SEC charges of failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto asset lending product.  The company has agreed to pay another $22.5 million and comply with additional terms in order to settle similar charges in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.  As part of those additional terms, Nexo must notify all remaining U.S. investors to withdraw all remaining assets from Nexo’s platform by April 2023.  SEC, AG NY

Tagged in: Cryptocurrency, Securities Fraud,

January 13, 2023

The SEC has awarded more than $5 million to a whistleblower who first reported internally, and whose subsequent tip to the agency helped shape its investigation.  Based on the whistleblower’s information, agency staff were able to identify witnesses and effectively draft document and information requests.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, Whistleblower Rewards,

January 11, 2023

A man accused of defrauding ten pension funds out of $43 million has been ordered to pay over $10.2 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalties.  Jason Sugarman, his partner Jason Galanis, and six other co-conspirators had acquired control of two investment advisors with the intent to use their clients’ funds to purchase Native American tribal bonds.  Instead, the group misappropriated the funds and used them to acquire a foreign insurance company and the second investment advisor.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud,

December 21, 2022

Precious metals firm Monex Deposit Company, together with related entities and individual owners, have been ordered to pay a civil penalty of $5 million, and customer restitution of $33 million, to resolve claims arising from the defendants’ operation of a retail over-the-counter trading platform, known as “Atlas,” which allowed customers to speculate on precious metals price movements, with Monex acting as the counterparty to every transaction. While the defendants claimed in marketing that leveraged trading of precious metals was highly profitable, in fact, the majority of the trades resulted in losses for customers.  CFTC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Fraud in CFTC-Regulated Markets, Misrepresentations,

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