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Government Enforcement Actions

Please also see our Recent Government Enforcement Actions page.

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May 14, 2014

Nationwide Life Insurance Company agreed to pay an $8 million penalty to settle SEC charges it routinely violated pricing rules in its daily processing of purchase and redemption orders for variable insurance contracts and underlying mutual funds. SEC

May 11, 2015

The SEC charged a self-described retirement planning firm, Novers Financial and its principals Christopher A. Novinger and Brady J. Speers with falsely telling customers that interests in life settlements they offered and sold were “guaranteed,” “safe as CDs,” and “federally insured.” In addition to the charges against Novers Financial and the two principals, the SEC charged ICAN Investment Group LLC and Speers Financial Group LLC for acting as unregistered broker-dealers. SEC

May 6, 2015

The SEC filed fraud charges against four former officers of Wilmington Trust for intentionally understating past due bank loans during the financial crisis. According to the SEC, the former officials improperly excluded hundreds of millions of dollars of past due real estate loans from financial reports filed by Wilmington Trust in 2009 and 2010, violating a requirement to fully disclose the amount of loans 90 or more days past due. The former Delaware-based bank holding company was acquired by M&T Bank in May 2011 and paid $18.5 million in September 2014 to settle related SEC charges of improper accounting and disclosure fraud. SEC

 April 29, 2015

The SEC charged the hedge fund advisory firm Alpha Titans LLC along with its principal Timothy P. McCormack and general counsel Kelly D. Kaeser with improper allocations of fund assets to pay undisclosed operating expenses.  To settle the SEC’s charges, Alpha Titans and McCormack agreed to pay disgorgement of $469,522, prejudgment interest of $28,928, and a penalty of $200,000.  Lesser agreed to pay a penalty of $75,000.  SEC

April 22, 2015

Real estate investment firm W2007 Grace Acquisition I Inc., which is indirectly owned by one or more private equity funds affiliated with The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., agreed to pay $640,000 to settle SEC charges relating to its failure to make eight required SEC filings.  SEC

April 22, 2015

The SEC announced a whistleblower award of roughly $1.5 million to a compliance officer who had a reasonable basis to believe that disclosure to the SEC was necessary to prevent imminent misconduct from causing substantial financial harm to the company or investors.  This is the second award the SEC has made to an employee with internal audit or compliance responsibilities.  Whistleblower Insider

April 20, 2015

BlackRock Advisors LLC agreed to pay a $12 million penalty to settle SEC charges it breached its fiduciary duty by failing to disclose a conflict of interest created by the outside business activity of a top-performing portfolio manager.  According to the SEC, Daniel J. Rice III was managing energy-focused funds at BlackRock when he founded Rice Energy, which later formed a joint venture with a publicly-traded coal company that eventually became the largest holding in the $1.7 billion BlackRock Energy & Resources Portfolio, the largest Rice-managed fund. Whistleblower Insider

April 16, 2015

The SEC charged New York City-based financial advisor Michael J. Oppenheim with stealing at least $20 million from customers to fund his own brokerage accounts and then squandering the bulk of the money in highly unprofitable options trading.  SEC

April 14, 2015

The SEC announced fraud charges and an asset freeze against central Texas-based Leroy Brown Jr. accused of telling false tales about his stockbroking experience to lure current and former US military personnel into investing with him.  According to the government, Brown through his firm LB Stocks and Trades Advice LLC falsely assured investors, including some stationed at nearby Fort Hood, that he had many years of experience in the securities markets when in fact he is not a licensed securities professional and his firm is not registered with the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or any state regulator, and they have no evident experience with investments.  SEC
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