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SEC Enforcement Actions

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the United States agency with primary responsibility for enforcing federal securities laws. Whistleblowers with knowledge of violations of the federal securities laws can submit a claim to the SEC under the SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, and may be eligible to receive  monetary rewards and protection against retaliation by employers.

Below are summaries of recent SEC settlements or successful prosecutions. If you believe you have information about fraud which could give  rise to an SEC enforcement action and claim under the SEC Whistleblower Reward Program, please contact us to speak with one of our experienced whistleblower attorneys.

February 4, 2016

Miami-based brokerage firm E.S. Financial Services, now known as Brickell Global Markets, will pay a $1 million penalty to settle charges that it violated anti-money laundering rules by allowing foreign entities to buy and sell securities without verifying the identities of non-U.S. citizens who beneficially owned them.  Federal law requires all financial institutions to maintain an adequate customer identification program to ensure they know their customers and do not become a conduit for money laundering or terrorist financing.  But during SEC examinations, the firm twice failed to provide required books and records identifying certain foreign customers whom they were soliciting directly and to whom they were providing investment advice.  An ensuing investigation found that the firm’s customer identification program failed to obtain and maintain documentation to verify the identities of 23 non-U.S. citizens, the beneficial owners of 13 non-U.S. corporate entities, who executed more than $23 million in securities transactions through a brokerage account opened by a Central American bank affiliated with the firm.  SEC

February 3, 2016

Manhattan-based lending company, American Growth Funding II LLC (AGF), and its owner, Ralph Johnson, have been charged with fraud for repeatedly lying to investors purchasing high-yield securities.  The SEC alleges that the defendants promised investors 12-percent annual returns, falsely claimed its financial statements were being audited each year, and concealed details about the deteriorating value of assets that could imperil full payment of returns to investors.  The SEC also charged Portfolio Advisors Alliance, the brokerage firm that acted as AGF’s placement agent, and two of its executives, for allegedly continuing to use AGF’s offering documents to solicit sales of its securities when they knew that the documents were inaccurate.  SEC

February 2, 2016

Fourteen municipal underwriting firms will pay civil penalties to settle charges under the SEC’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation (MCDC) initiative.  In all, 72 underwriters (comprising 96% of the municipal underwriting market) have been charged under the voluntary self-reporting program which targets material misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offering documents.  The settling firms and civil penalties paid by the settling firms are as follows: Barclays Capital Inc. ($500,000), Boenning & Scattergood Inc. ($250,000), D.A. Davidson & Co. ($500,000), First Midstate Inc. ($100,000), Hilltop Securities Inc. ($360,000), Janney Montgomery Scott LLC ($500,000), Jefferies LLC ($500,000), KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. ($440,000), Mitsubishi UFJ Securities  (USA) Inc. ($20,000), Municipal Capital Markets Group Inc. ($60,000), Roosevelt & Cross Inc. ($250,0000), TD Securities (USA) LLC ($500,000), United Bankers’ Bank ($160,000), and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. Municipal Products Group ($440,000).  SEC

February 1, 2016

Software manufacturer SAP SE will disgorge $3.7 million from profits on its sales of software to the Panamanian Government to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when procuring business in Panama.  An SEC investigation found that SAP’s deficient internal controls allowed a former SAP executive, Vincente Garcia, to pay $145,000 in bribes to a senior Panamanian government official and offer bribes to two others in exchange for lucrative software contracts.  The bribery scheme involved providing large discounts of up to 82% to SAP’s Panamanian business partner, who used the excessive discounts to create a slush fund out of which it could pay bribes on Garcia’s behalf.  SEC

January 31, 2016

Barclays Capital Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC will collectively pay $154.3 million to the SEC and New York Attorney General to settle separate cases finding that they violated federal securities laws while operating alternative trading systems known as dark pools and Credit Suisse’s Light Pool.  Barclays will pay $35 million in penalties to the SEC and $35 million in penalties to the New York Attorney General.  Credit Suisse will pay $30 million in penalties and $24.3 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest to the SEC and $30 million in penalties to the New York Attorney General.  The settlements address misstatements by Barclays and Credit Suisse to subscribers about the material operations of their alternative trading systems.  SEC

January 28, 2016

Manhattan-based advisory firm, QED Benchmark Management LLC, and its Toronto-based founder/manager, Peter Kuperman, will reimburse investors $2.877 million in losses to settle charges that they misled investors about a fund’s investment strategy and historical performance.  According to the SEC’s order, QED and Kuperman avoided disclosing heavy trading losses to investors by using a misleading mixture of actual and hypothetical returns when describing the fund's performance history.  After obtaining millions of dollars from investors based on these misrepresentations, QED and Kuperman then deviated from their stated investment strategy and poured most of the fund’s assets into a single penny stock.  SEC

January 20, 2016

Ocwen Financial Corp. will pay $2 million to settle charges that it misstated financial results by using a flawed, undisclosed methodology to value complex mortgage assets.  Ocwen inaccurately disclosed to investors that it independently valued these assets at fair market value according to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. In fact, Ocwen merely used, and failed to review, the valuation performed by a related party to which it sold the rights to service certain mortgages.  In addition, the SEC found that Ocwen’s internal controls failed to prevent conflicts of interest involving Ocwen’s executive chairman who played a dual role in many related party transactions.  As a result, Ocwen’s executive chairman was able to approve transactions from both sides, including a $75 million bridge loan to Ocwen from a company where he also served as chairman of the board.  SEC

January 19, 2016

Equinox Fund Management LLC, a Denver-based alternative fund manager, will pay over $6 million to settle charges that the firm overcharged management fees and misled investors about how it valued certain assets.  Equinox will refund investors approximately $5.4 million in excessive management fees collected during a seven-year period.  SEC

January 14, 2016

Goldman, Sachs & Co. will pay $15 million to settle charges that its securities lending practices violating federal regulations.  The SEC’s order found that Goldman violated Regulation SHO by improperly providing “locates” — representations that the firm believes it can obtain a security necessary to settle a short sale — when it had failed to perform an adequate review of the securities to be located.  Specifically, Goldman employees routinely processed customer locate requests by relying on a function of Goldman’s order management system which allowed orders to be placed based on the start-of-day inventory reported to Goldman by large financial institutions.  However, this function allowed locates to be provided even when the automated system had already deemed the inventory depleted based on locate requests placed earlier in the day.  Additionally, when questioned about the firm’s lending practices by SEC examiners, Goldman Sachs provided incomplete responses that adversely affected and unnecessarily prolonged the SEC’s examination.  SEC
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