Contact

Click here for a confidential contact or call:

1-347-417-2192

Archive

Page 17 of 57

December 23, 2020

RPM International Inc. and Edward W. Moore, its general counsel and chief compliance officer, will pay a $2 million penalty to resolve allegations that the roofing company violated generally accepted accounting principles in failing to timely disclose a material loss contingency or accrual arising from its knowledge that the government was investigating alleged overcharges by RPM on government contracts.  In August 2014, RPM restated its results in three prior quarters, although it allegedly knew about the investigation and the company’s exposure earlier.  SEC

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

December 16, 2020

China-based Luckin Coffee will pay a penalty of $180 million to resolve charges that the company defrauded investors by materially misstating the its revenue, expenses, and net operating loss in an effort to falsely appear to achieve rapid growth and increased profitability and to meet earnings estimates. The SEC alleged that over the course of more than a year, Luckin intentionally fabricated more than $300 million in retail sales, and $190 million in expenses, by using related parties to create false transactions and inflated expenses. Luckin overstated its revenue by 28% and 45% in two different quarters, and raised more than $864 million from debt and equity investors during the relevant time period. Luckin ADRs were traded on NASDAQ until July, 2020.  SEC

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

December 9, 2020

General Electric Co. (GE) has agreed to pay $200 million to settle SEC charges of violating accounting controls, disclosure controls, antifraud, and reporting provisions of securities laws.  According to the SEC, between 2015 to 2017, GE failed to disclose to investors the full picture of some of its profits, including that some of the profits from its power business stemmed from reductions in prior cost estimates, that increases in industrial cash collections came primarily from internal receivable sales between its power and financial services businesses, and that risks had arisen in its insurance business.  When challenges to those businesses were finally disclosed to the public in 2017 and 2018, GE’s stock fell by almost 75%.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

December 9, 2020

A man in Washington D.C. who ran a fraudulent diamond investment Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 7 years in prison and ordered to pay $23 million in restitution to victims throughout the United States and Canada who were told their funds would be used to purchase rough diamonds that would be cut, polished, and resold at a profit.  To lure investors to the scheme, Jose Angel Aman and his co-conspirators promised that the investments were secured by Aman’s inventory of diamonds, allegedly valued at $25 million.  In fact, there was no $25 million inventory of diamonds, and the funds were used for interest payments to earlier investors and to pay Aman and his co-conspirators.  USAO SDFL

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

December 8, 2020

UK-based investment advisor BlueCrest Capital Management Limited has agreed to pay over $132 million in disgorgement and interest and over $37 million in penalties, for a total of $170 million, to settle charges of failing to make material disclosures, or making inadequate or misleading disclosures, to investors for more than four years.  The alleged securities law violations involved omissions and inadequate or misleading statements regarding the firm’s transfer of a majority of its highest-performing traders from its flagship client fund, BlueCrest Capital International (BCI), to a proprietary fund, BBSMA Limited, and replacing live traders with an underperforming algorithm while continuing to collect performance fees.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

December 2, 2020

Energy company SCANA Corp. has agreed to pay a $25 million penalty to settle SEC charges of defrauding investors.  SCANA and its subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. (SCE&G), have also agreed to pay $112.5 million in disgorgement.  According to the SEC, SCANA, SCE&G, and top executives Kevin Marsh (former CEO) and Stephen Byrne (former executive VP) defrauded investors by making false and misleading statements concerning a nuclear power plant expansion that they said would qualify the company for more than $1 billion in tax credits.  However, defendants knew the project was far behind schedule and likely to be scrapped.  The false statements led investors to buy more than $1 billion in bonds, and caused millions of dollars in losses when the project was ultimately scrapped in mid-2017.  DOJ; SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

October 22, 2020

Jerry Taylor of North Carolina has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $6.1 million in restitution for his role in a $9.4 million fraud scheme targeting North Carolina’s Medicaid program.  Along with his brother Tony and co-conspirators in Ohio and New York, Taylor submitted claims for behavioral health services benefiting local at-risk youth that were purportedly performed at companies he owned and operated with his brother, but that were in reality not actually performed or misrepresented in the claims.  In addition to defrauding Medicaid, Taylor also evaded taxes by failing to report more than $1.6 million in reimbursements in 2016 and 2017.  For those charges, Taylor will pay over $346,000 to the IRS.  USAO WDNC

Tagged in: FCA State, Healthcare Fraud, Medicaid, Medical Billing Fraud, Misrepresentations, Provider Fraud, Tax Fraud,

October 14, 2020

Michael Allen Worley of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 12 years in prison following his plea of guilty on charges including bank fraud.  Worley admitted that between 2014 and 2018 he fraudulently obtained more than $40 million in loans and investments from banks and private equity firms for himself and his businesses.  Worley’s fraud included false statements that inflated his assets, understated and omitted his liabilities, misrepresented his income, and misrepresented the intended use of loan proceeds. Worley was also ordered to pay $15.75 million in restitution to his victims.  USAO MD LA

Tagged in: Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, Misrepresentations,

October 2, 2020

Jon Barry Thompson of Pennsylvania has been ordered to pay approximately $7.4 million in restitution for making false representations to two customers regarding purchases of Bitcoin.  According to the CFTC press release, Thompson induced the customers to send him the funds by assuring them he had the Bitcoin in hand.  However, after receiving the funds, he distributed the money to third parties, failed to provide the customers with any Bitcoin, and made false representations regarding the location of the Bitcoin and the status of the funds.  Thompson pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud in a parallel action relating to this matter, and will be sentenced in January 2021.  CFTC

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

1 … 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 … 57

Newsletter

Subscribe to receive email updates from the Constantine Cannon blogs

Sign up for: