Financial and Investment Fraud

July 18, 2019

Swapnil Rege, who worked as a portfolio manager for a hedge fund that operated as a commodity pool operator, was been ordered by the CFTC  and SEC to pay a $100,000 civil penalty and disgorge a $600,000 performance bonus he received as a result of his fraudulent mismarking the valuations of interest rate swaps.  The mismarking, accomplished through various means, artifically inflated the profitability of his trades, earning him a larger performance bonus.  SEC, CFTC

July 16, 2019

AR Capital LLC, together with its founder Nicholas Schorsch and its former CFO Brian Block, have agreed to pay $39 million in disgorgement and interest, as well as penalties totaling $21.75 million, to resolve allegations that they wrongfully inflated incentive fees and took unsupported charges in two separate mergers involving the publicly-traded REIT American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. that AR Capital sponsored and managed.  Defendants allegedly failed to properly disclose their compensation to shareholders.  SEC

July 15, 2019

Nomura Securities, Inc. agreed to provide $25 million to reimburse customers that purchased mortgage-backed securities from Nomura.  The SEC orders find that Nomura traders made false and misleading statements to customers, including about the price at which Nomura bought securities, the amount of profit Nomura would receive on the potential trade, and the current owner of the security.  The SEC furhter alleged that Nomura failed to reasonably supervise its traders.  Nomura, which cooperated in the investigation, will also pay $1.5 million in penalties.  Two individual traders were previously charged by the SEC.  SEC

July 3, 2019

A Florida man convicted in February of causing the collapse of one of the largest banks in Puerto Rico has been sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $103 million in restitution to the FDIC.  Jack Kachkar had fraudulently secured $142 million in loans from Westernbank of Puerto Rico by presenting fake invoices from his company, Inyx Inc.  When he failed to repay the loans, the bank suffered a catastrophic loss that forced it to close.  DOJ; USAO SDFL

June 27, 2019

State Street Bank and Trust Company will pay more than $88 million to the SEC to resolve charges that it overcharged its client mutual funds and other registered investment companies.  State Street served as custodian, and the clients agreed to reimburse State Street for specified custodial expenses that State Street incurred on their behalf.  However, State Street overcharged its clients, adding an undisclosed mark-up on the cost of sending financial transactions through the SWIFT network.  SEC

June 20, 2019

To settle charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Walmart Inc. and its Brazilian subsidiary, WMT Brasilia S.a.r.l., have agreed to pay $138 million to the DOJ and $144 million to the SEC, for a combined penalty of $282 million.  According to the DOJ and SEC, Walmart’s alleged failure to implement and maintain adequate internal anti-corruption controls from 2000 to 2011 resulted in bribes to government officials in Brazil, China, India, and Mexico that allowed Walmart’s foreign subsidiaries to open more stores faster.  For cooperating with all investigations and self-disclosing some of the alleged misconduct, Walmart received a reduction of 20-25% off the amount originally owed to the DOJ.  In addition to the monetary penalty, Walmart has agreed to retain an outside compliance monitor for two years.  DOJ, SEC, USAO EDVA

June 19, 2019

The former CEO of Quintillion, a telecommunications company in Alaska, has been sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $896,698 for defrauding investors of more than $270 million.  In order to secure funding to build a high-speed fiber optic cable system, Elizabeth Pierce had presented two New York investment companies with contracts that made it appear as if Quintillion was guaranteed revenue of nearly $1 billion.  Unbeknownst to investors and her own staff, however, the contracts were allegedly forged and the actual contracts she’d negotiated would generate only a fraction of that amount.  Quintillion eventually reported her to the DOJ.  USAO SDNY

June 18, 2019

Wedbush Securities, Inc., will pay more than $8.1 million to the SEC to resolve charges that the securities company improperly obtained pre-released ADRs from depositary banks when it should have known that neither the firm nor its customers owned the foreign shares needed to support those ADRs.  This practice inflates the total number of a foreign issuer’s tradeable securities.  The SEC further alleged that Wedbush failed to have adequate compliance and training.  The consent order requires the company to pay more than $4.8 million in disgorgement, approximately $800,000 in prejudgment interest, and a civil money penalty of more than $2.4 million.  SEC

June 17, 2019

Audit and accounting firm KPMG LLP will pay a $50 million SEC penalty to resolve charges that the firm revised its audit workpapers in an effort to improve KPMG’s performance in PCAOB inspections planned for the audits in question after wrongfuly obtaining PCAOB lists of inspection targets.  The SEC also found that numerous KPMG audit professionals cheated on internal training exams.  In addition to the penalty, KPMG agreed to undertake specified compliance measures, including the retention of an independent consultant.  Former KPMG officials face individual criminal charges.  SEC