Archive

August 10, 2016

Atlanta-based building products distributor BlueLinx Holdings Inc. will pay a $265,000 penalty to settle charges that it violated securities laws by requiring outgoing employees to sign severance agreements that waived their rights to monetary recovery should they file a charge or complaint with the SEC or other federal agencies.  According to the SEC’s order, BlueLinx added the monetary recovery prohibition to all of its severance agreements in mid-2013, nearly two years after the SEC’s adoption of Rule 21F-17, which prohibits any action to impede someone from communicating with the SEC about possible securities law violations.  SEC

August 10, 2016

August 10, 2016 – The SEC charged former Philadelphia Eagle Merrill Robertson, Jr., his partner Sherman C. Vaughn Jr., and their company Cavalier Union Investments LLC, with defrauding investors by misleading them about their experience and the security of their investments and by diverting investor funds to personal use.  According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants promised to invest in diversified holdings but instead diverted nearly $6 million of the $10 million raised to pay for personal expenses and repay earlier investors.  Allegedly the scheme targeted seniors and coaches, donors, alumni, and employees of schools where Robertson had attended and played football.  SEC

August 4, 2016

The SEC charged Connecticut cardiologist Dr. Edward Kosinski with insider trading.  Dr. Kosinski was the principal investigator in a drug trial being pursued by Regado Biosciences for a potential new clotting agent designed to be used in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty.  Dr. Kosinski received advance notice that patient enrollment in the trial was being suspended because patients had experienced severe allergic reactions.  In response, he allegedly sold all 40,000 shares of his Regado stock to avoid $160,000 in losses he would have suffered when the news became public and the stock dropped.  A month later, he received advance notice that enrollment would be halted because a patient had died, and he again profited by betting the stock price would drop and purchasing option trades.  SEC

August 24, 2016

Florida obtained a court order temporarily shutting down a tech support company that, along with its owners, allegedly deceived consumers out of more than $25 million. The scam operated as Client Care Experts, formerly known as First Choice Tech Support, LLC, and is owned by CEO Michael Seward and his partner, Kevin McCormick. The defendants ran the tech support scam out of a boiler room in Boynton Beach and employed more than 200 telemarketers at the location. The order follows an effort by defendants to dissolve an earlier order obtained by Attorney General Bondi’s Office that temporarily shut down the business, froze the defendants’ assets to preserve funds for consumer restitution and appointed a receiver to oversee the operation through the conclusion of the case. The court denied the defendants’ motion to dissolve and kept the previous order in place pending the final judgment. FL

August 22, 2016

Irina Feldman, Cindium Inc., and Einstein Exchange Group Inc. agreed to pay more than $600,000 to settle charges of committing solicitation fraud and misappropriation in connection with operating a commodity pool that offered foreign currency and commodity futures transactions, and for failing to register with the CFTC as Commodity Pool Operators.  CFTC

August 18, 2016

The CFTC filed a complaint in the Southern District of New York charging Deutsche Bank AG with multiple swap reporting violations, failing to supervise its employees responsible for swap data reporting, and violating a prior CFTC order.  CFTC

August 17, 2016

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement action against Mirko Schacke of Antioch, California, and his company, TradeMasters USA, LLC, of Las Vegas, Nevada, charging them with fraudulently soliciting over $150,000 from at least 36 investors in connection with the purchase of futures trading software.  CFTC

August 16, 2016

Steven A. Cohen of Greenwich, Connecticut was issued a notice of intent to revoke, suspend or place restrictions on his registration by the CFTC for failing to adequately supervise an employee to ensure that employee was not engaged in insider trading.  CFTC

August 15 , 2016

The CFTC obtained a summary judgment order requiring Robert S. Leben and Amy L. Leben of Columbia, South Carolina, to pay over $10 million in penalties and restitution for misappropriating pool participant funds and failing to register as commodity pool operators, among other charges.  CFTC

August 12, 2016

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered International Monetary Metals, Inc., a Florida corporation, and its controlling person, Martin Sommers to pay almost $10 million in disgorgement and a civil monetary penalty for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions and registration violations.  CFTC