Archive

April 1, 2015

Timothy Scronce agreed to settle charges of defrauding Illinois-based telecommunications company PCTEL Inc. and its shareholders during and after its acquisition of his business TelWorx Communications LLC and his three related telecommunications companies.  According to the SEC, Scronce used false accounting entries to inflate TelWorx’s quarterly revenues and earnings in the months leading up to the purchase to inflate the price PCTEL paid for the companies.  He also allegedly falsified PCTEL’s books and records and circumvented the company’s internal controls by recording bogus transactions.  Scronce consented to the SEC’s order requiring him to return his allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest, pay a civil penalty, and be barred for 10 years from serving as a public company officer or director.  SEC

March 31, 2015

The SEC charged Andrew Miller, the former CEO of Silicon Valley-based technology firm Polycom Inc., with using nearly $200,000 in corporate funds for personal perks that were not disclosed to investors.  The SEC separately charged Polycom in an administrative order finding the company had inadequate internal controls and failed to report Miller’s perks to investors.  Polycom agreed to pay $750,000 to settle the SEC’s charges.  SEC

March 30, 2015

The SEC announced fraud charges against investment adviser Lynn Tilton and her New York-based Patriarch Partners firms accusing them of hiding the poor performance of loan assets in three collateralized loan obligation (CLO) funds they manage collectively referred to as the Zohar funds.  SEC

March 27, 2015

New York-based brokerage firm Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of global financial services firm Macquarie Group Limited, agreed to pay $15 million to settle SEC charges for underwriting a public offering o Puda Coal despite obtaining a due diligence report indicating that the China-based company’s offering materials contained false information.  Former Macquarie Capital managing director Aaron Black and former investment banker William Fang also agreed to pay $212,711 and $35,000, respectively, to settle charges they failed to exercise appropriate care in their due diligence review.  SEC

February 27, 2015

The SEC charged purported venture capital fund manager Gregory W. Gray Jr. and his firms Archipel Capital LLC and BIM Management LP with fraudulently using money from three investment funds to pay fictitious returns to investors in a different fund.  SEC

February 19, 2015

New York City-based brokerage firm VCAP Securities and its CEO Brett Thomas Graham agreed to pay nearly $1.5M to settle charges they fraudulently deceived other market participants while conducting auctions to liquidate collateralized debt obligations.  SEC

February 13, 2015

The SEC charged purported hedge fund manager Moazzam “Mark” Malik with stealing money from his investors.  Specifically, the SEC alleges Malik raised $840,774 from investors but never made real investments and withdrew the cash and spent it as his own.  His fund, which has changed its name several times, has been called Wall Street Creative Partners, then Seven Sages Capital LP, and then American Bridge Investment Group LLC, and most recently Wolf Hedge LLC. SEC

February 10, 2015

The SEC announced William Slater and Peter E. Williams III, former CFOs of Silicon Valley software company Saba Software, agreed to return nearly a half-million dollars in bonuses and stock sale profits they received while Saba was committing accounting fraud.  While not personally charged with the company’s misconduct, Slater and Williams are still required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to reimburse the company for bonuses and stock sale profits received while the fraud occurred.  Last year, the SEC charged Saba Software and two former executives responsible for the accounting fraud in which timesheets were falsified to hit quarterly financial targets.  SEC February

February 5, 2015

The SEC charged Chicago-area alternative energy company Broadwind Energy, along with its former CEO J. Cameron Drecoll and CFO Stephanie K. Kushner, for accounting and disclosure violations that prevented investors from knowing that reduced business from two significant customers had caused substantial declines in the company’s long-term financial prospects.  Broadwind Energy agreed to pay a $1 million penalty, and Drecoll and Kushner agreed to pay nearly $700,000 in combined disgorgement and penalties.  SEC

January 21, 2015

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services agreed to pay $77M to settle fraud charges relating to its ratings of certain commercial mortgage-backed securities.  According to the Director of the SEC Enforcement Division Andrew J. Ceresney, “Standard & Poor’s elevated its own financial interests above investors by loosening its rating criteria to obtain business and then obscuring these changes from investors.  These enforcement actions, our first-ever against a major ratings firm, reflect our commitment to aggressively policing the integrity and transparency of the credit ratings process.”  SEC