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Page 143 of 176

August 6, 2015

The SEC announced charges against Knoxville-based Miller Energy Resources Inc. (Miller), Miller’s former CFO, Miller’s current COO, and the audit team leader at Miller’s former independent auditor.  The SEC alleges that defendants overstated the value of Miller oil and gas properties in Alaska by more than $400 million.  Allegedly, this inflated valuation turned the penny-stock company into one that eventually listed on the NYSE at a high of $9 per share.  SEC

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Securities Fraud,

August 3, 2015

Houston businessman, Frederick Alan Voight, settled charges by the SEC that he operated a $114 million Ponzi scheme.  The SEC’s case charged Voight with defrauding more than 300 investors in multiple offerings of promissory notes issued by two partnerships he owns.  Voight has agreed to an asset freeze and to pay civil penalties and return allegedly ill-gotten gains in an amount to be set later by the court.  SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Ponzi Schemes, Securities Fraud,

July 31, 2015

The SEC charged Canadian citizen, Phillip Thomas Kueber, with conducting a scheme to conceal his control and ownership of microcap company, Cynk Technology Corp., to make it appear that the company had publicly-held shares.  According to the SEC’s complaint, the SEC suspended trading in the stock before Kueber could profit on the stock’s rise from 10 cents per share to over $21 per share. SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

July 30, 2015

The SEC charged two men and eight companies with defrauding investors who purchased the companies’ securities and so-called “charitable gift annuities.”  According to the SEC’s complaint, the two men, the CEO and CFO of Defendant 54Freedom, Inc., repeatedly misled investors regarding company prospects.   The alleged scheme raised at least $8 million from 125 or more investors over seven years.  In a parallel criminal action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of New York announced on July 24th that it arrested one of the men on charges of fraud and money laundering related to the “charitable gift annuities.”  SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

July 23, 2015

Three former employees of broker-dealer Oppenheimer settled charges stemming from the unregistered sales of billions of shares of penny stocks on behalf of a customer.  This action relates to a previously settled enforcement action against Oppenheimer in which the broker-dealer admitted wrong-doing and paid $20 million to the SEC and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.  According to the SEC’s order, the former employees failed to make reasonable inquiries or provide appropriate oversight in the face of red flags indicating that their customer’s stock sales were not exempt from registration.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial Institution Fraud, Regulatory Violations, Securities Fraud,

July 21, 2015

The SEC charged three men, currently living in Israel, with defrauding investors by disseminating promotional e-mails exhorting readers to immediately buy purportedly hot stocks so they could secretly sell their own holdings at a substantial profit, a classic “pump and dump” scheme.  According to the allegations in the complaint, the men pumped the price of penny stocks by as much as 1,800 percent, permitting them to take over $2.8 million in trading profits.  In a parallel action, the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office has brought criminal charges against the three men.  SEC

Tagged in: Market Manipulation and Trading Violations, Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

July 16, 2015

The SEC charged Pennsylvania real estate attorney, Herbert Sudfeld, with insider trading in the stock of Harleysville Group, Inc. in advance of the 2011 announcement of a $760 million merger of Harleysville and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.  According to the complaint, Sudfeld illegally traded on the news that sent Harleysville’s stock price up 87%.  SEC

Tagged in: Insider Trading, Securities Fraud,

July 14, 2015

The SEC charged 15 individuals and 19 entities for their roles in alleged schemes to manipulate the trading of microcap stocks.  The defendants include two microcap issuers (Warrier Girl Corp. and Nature’s Peak, formerly Everock, Inc.), six firms alleged to have acted as unregistered broker-dealers for customers wishing to conceal their stock ownership and manipulate the microcap market, owners and employees at these six firms, customers, and stock promoters.  Defendant Moneyline Brokers is alleged to have unlawfully operated as a broker-dealer for U.S.-based customers who engaged in “pump and dump” schemes.  SEC

Tagged in: Market Manipulation and Trading Violations, Misrepresentations, Regulatory Violations, Securities Fraud,

July 14, 2015

OZ Management LP admitted wrongdoing and agreed to pay a $4.25 million penalty to settle charges that it provided inaccurate trade data to four prime brokers, causing inaccuracies in the brokers’ books and records and in data provided to the SEC in investigations.  SEC

Tagged in: Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

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