Archive

February 21, 2014

The SEC charged Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG for violating the federal securities laws by providing cross-border brokerage and investment advisory services to U.S. clients without first registering with the SEC.  Credit Suisse agreed to pay $196M and admit wrongdoing to settle the SEC’s charges.  SEC

January 29, 2014

The SEC charged St. Louis-based Scottrade with failing to provide the agency with complete and accurate information about trades done by the firm and its customers, which is commonly called “blue sheet” data.  The company agreed to settle the charges by paying a $2.5M penalty and admitting it violated the recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws.  SEC

January 27, 2014

The SEC sanctioned California-based investment adviser Western Asset Management Company, a subsidiary of Legg Mason,  for concealing investor losses that resulted from a coding error and engaging in cross trading that favored some clients over others.  The company agreed to pay more than $21M to settle the SEC’s charges as well as a related matter by the DOJ. SEC

December 8, 2015

A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted Anthony Brandel and James Warras of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud for their roles in an approximately $10 million international investment fraud scheme involving numerous victims.  According to evidence presented at trial, Brandel and Warras conspired with others in the US and Switzerland to promote investments and loan instruments they knew to be fraudulent.  Specifically, they misrepresented to victims using fabricated bank documents that, for an up-front payment, a Swiss company known as the Malom (Make A Lot of Money) Group AG would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans.  DOJ

November 4, 2015

Tampa, Florida investment advisor and founder of OM Global Investment Fund LLC Gignesh Movalia was sentenced to 18 months in prison and to pay $5,394,419 in restitution for perpetrating a $9 million investment fraud scheme involving Facebook stock.  In connection with his guilty plea, Movalia admitted raising more than $9 million from 130 investors by falsely claiming to have access to pre-initial public offering shares of Facebook Inc.  DOJ

August 13, 2015

Florida investment advisor Gignesh Movalia pleaded guilty to perpetrating a $9 million investment fraud scheme involving Facebook stock.  Specifically, Movalia, who was the founder and manager of OM Global Investment Fund LLC, solicited investments by falsely touting access to pre-IPO shares of Facebook which he then used for and lost in other investments that he concealed from investors.  DOJ

March 26, 2015

Ebrahim Shabudin, former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Credit Officer of United Commercial Bank, was convicted of securities fraud and other corporate fraud offenses stemming from the failure of the bank.  DOJ

March 25, 2015

Thomas E. Jackson and Preston J. Harrison, operators of Ohio-based Imperial Integrated Health Research and Development LLC, were convicted of defrauding their company’s investors and diverting investors’ funds for their own personal use in connection with their sale of the sports energy drink OXYwater.  DOJ

February 3, 2015

Ratings Agency giant Standard & Poor’s Financial Services (S&P), along with its parent corporation McGraw Hill Financial Inc., agreed to pay $1.375B to settle charges it schemed to defraud investors in structured financial products known as Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs). According to the government, S&P falsely represented that its ratings of RMBS and CDOs were objective, independent and uninfluenced by S&P’s business relationships with the investment banks that issued the securities. Instead, S&P issued inflated ratings that misrepresented the securities’ true credit risks causing RMBS and CDO investors to incur substantial losses. Whistleblower Insider

January 30, 2015

Maxim Chukharev, former information technology manager for Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to the government, Liberty Reserve billed itself as the Internet’s “largest payment processor and money transfer system” but instead was created, structured and operated to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes. According to court records, before being shut down by the government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system totaling more than $6B in funds which encompassed suspected proceeds of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, narcotics trafficking and other crimes.DOJ